Chinese Finger Trap This Instant!

Chinese Finger Trap

Have you ever had an encounter with a Chinese finger trap? If you have, you can visualize this thing as a small tube made of thin bamboo. It's designed that you place your left index finger in one end and your right index finger in the other. Moving your fingers tightens its grip. Your natural inclination to break free from the trap is to pull your fingers apart. That move, however, only further tightens the thing. To escape the finger trap, you actually have to bring your fingertips toward one another, thereby enlarging the openings, loosening the grip, and—voilá (whallah)!—you’re released.

When I'm in the thick of my problems, I try to pull my fingers apart. I struggle and pull, toss and turn. I do everything in my power to find release from the trap. Meanwhile, the grip of my problems only tightens its hold on me. So I do it some more.

But when I stop and just feel my fingers pulsate for a minute, I relax. Then I reassess. My problem has faded in comparison to the pain in my fingers. I've been fighting arrogantly, pridefully saying, "I'll just fix this myself, thank you very much."

Miracle of miracles—when I do the thing most unnatural for my SELF, when I let the Spirit of God take over and direct me ("Jodi, try pushing your fingertips toward each other, rather than pulling them apart"), I'm suddenly free. Sure, I have arguments with the Spirit, saying, "That's the most foolish thing I've ever heard! Why would I do the exact opposite of what I want to do?" He tends to win those arguments...usually only when my fingers are throbbing and I'm at my whit's end.

It's too bad I'm such a slow learner. I've caused myself a lot of unnecessary pain. But I can now say that doing things "MY way, thank you very much," is definitely losing its grip on me.

Are you in the thick of a problem right now, actively pulling your fingers apart from each other? Musing and worrying and attempting all things human for a way out, or a solution? Is there, perhaps, a better way?

"There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death."
Proverbs 14:12

"We live by faith, not by sight."
2 Corinthians 5:7