My first car was a red Geo Metro. The family we bought the car from allowed their children to swing on the driver’s side door, so I had to lift the door in order to close it. The engine was an air-cooled, three cylinder and regularly overheated in the McDonald’s drive-through. I was a pro at removing the radiator cap and filling the radiator with water. And because of a leak, I regularly refilled the brake fluid.
Another broken piece was the back hatch. I could lift it up, but the hydraulic arm didn’t function properly and the hatch fell unless there was a prop of some kind. Since I enjoyed recreational tennis, my racket always rode in my trunk, so it also seconded as a regular hatch prop for my trunk door. The only problem with this propping tool was that one end was round and would often slip, causing the hatch to fall down on my back.
Not once did it occur to me that the hydraulic arm for the hatch could be replaced. In fact, it was ten years later when the trunk stopped lifting on a different vehicle that I realized there were replacement arms. And they weren’t all that expensive.
I just thought that’s the way it was. The car had always had a broken hatch and I always propped it up with a tennis racket. That was my truth. I accepted the reality and never once thought the reality could be any different.
Which made me think about what other areas I had accepted as reality that really should have been fixed. Habits. Attitudes. Inner vows I made with myself. I’ll never live in a trailer (only for seventeen years). I’ve always been a procrastinator; I’ll never be able to finish anything. I’m just a quiet person who likes the back row, I’ll never be able to lead.
We are all guilty of accepting certain traits, feelings, situations, or relationships as truth.
“It’s just the way it’s always been and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
Really? Or have we simply accepted the thing as truth instead of analyzing how it got there in the first place? Just because I procrastinate for a season doesn’t mean I can’t become a finisher. Or just because I have convinced myself that I’m better on the back row doesn’t mean that God’s plan is to leave me there. And just because we’ve always believed something doesn’t make it true.
Our reality isn’t always actual reality. I had another option to fix the hatch on my car, I just never chose to explore or examine that direction. In fact, the thought of a different reality didn’t even occur to me.
This week, look at the areas that regularly cause you pain, hardship, discomfort, or stress. Is there something about those things that can be addressed and changed to make them less difficult? Or maybe you need to look at all the “I’ll never” or “I’ve always been” statements. Have your beliefs caused you to stay stuck all these years? What if there is another way?
It’s time to park your tennis racket and replace the hydraulic arm, my friend. Tennis rackets weren’t designed as hatch supports.
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