Nose To The Tree

I just got back from a few days of vacation at the beach.  I would have liked a few more, but it was long enough to remember what I so easily forget: it's hard to see where you are going if you always have your nose pressed up against a tree. 

We know the tree.  The tree of anxious care.  The tree of financial frustration.  The job that makes you crazy, the personal relationships that get messy, the marriage that sputters instead of sparks, and so it goes - we've all got our trees. So we push a little harder and get angry when the tree doesn't budge.  But the best way to get around a tree is to step back and consider what we haven't.  There's usually another way.

An annual vacation is great, but it's not nearly enough to help you find your way through the forest.  I always have to go back and relearn the first things.  Step back from the tree daily.  Step back from the tree weekly.  Step back regularly and look for what you haven't seen. Ask God to correct our tunnel vision, and make a way out of our rut.  Pray the prayer, read the Word, take the walk, breathe the air, and ask to see what we've missed.  Find a friend (hire one if need be) and get some perspective.

Trees rarely move, but usually that's not the only option.  Perhaps if I could remember that more often I'd spend less time picking the splinters from the end of my nose.