God Has Promised: Why?

"There is always a reason. Whenever anything has been mucked up, whenever anything outrageous happens, there is a reason for it. You still have a mucked up outrageous situation on your hands, however, and explaining it does not alleviate it one bit. If someone does something really rotten, there is a reason for it. Learn it if you care, and you know why he is a son-of-a-bitch. The fact is, the thing remains, though...It changes nothing to run a post-humous psychoanalysis. Acts and their consequences are the things by which our fellows judge us. Anything else and all that you get is a cheap feeling of moral superiority by thinking how you would have done something nicer if it had been you. So as for the rest, leave it to heaven. I'm not qualified.”

Corwin, The Great Book of Amber: The Complete Amber Chronicles: The Hand of Oberon, p479

Yeah, that. A couple of years ago I posted about acts and their consequences using this quote. Well, I've kind of worked through that piece of it. However, sometimes I find myself falling back into the habit of trying to figure out the why behind folks' behavior. Including my own. Yep. I, too, do things that make me go, "WTF???"

For example: suppose I go to bed after 200a because I am reading a book (which happens more often than I care to admit). Inevitably, I will wake up late, skip breakfast, just tether Chelsea outside instead of walking her, toss down some coffee, and run out the door. I'll down another cuppa, a Mt Dew, or a Coke (or two) before lunch, and probably something sugary and carbohydrate heavy out of the machine just because my stomach is empty. I might bolt a salad or half a sandwich at lunch (if I eat at all).

Result? By 200p, I'm going to be a mess, with no memory to speak of, making stupid mistakes, not thinking and wondering what is wrong with me. The answer to WHY I'm acting like a squirrel on crack isn't a mystery. The answer is I haven't done what I need to do to force my brain and body into line: I'm over caffeinated, under-exercised, and I haven't eaten enough for my high metabolism. My body is telling my brain to panic. DUH! No big mystery there. No need to do any deep analysis. Occam's Razor (in its most simplistic form) applies.

I'm learning to apply this way of thinking to other areas of my life as well. Sometimes I end up delving deeply into stuff that is really not that deep. Stuff that has a really simple, one sentence explanation when I pare it down. I don't have to go into any "post-humous psychoanalyses" about any of the things I wonder about. Ninety percent of the questions I ask of myself about stuff can be answered in one sentence. I don't need a defended dissertation. Just. One. Sentence.

So what does that mean in real life (or why does that merit this blog post)?

It means that I can free up brain space. When I can state the simplest answer to something...I free up that space in my head to work on things that are truly creative and beneficial to myself and to my son. Freed head space means I can think my way through the labyrinth that my life can sometimes become just because I am asking too many questions about things that just don't matter.

Why X? Because Y.

Simple.

Why did it take me an additional four years to figure that out? Because I like to make things more complicated than they really need to be. I have this thing about making things complicated.

And that is just silly of me. I can be silly without all the drama that sort of thing entails. ~shudder~ And it's much more fun besides. LOL!

Much more importantly however, if my mind is running madly to nowhere like some crazy insomniac hamster on a squeaky wheel, how can I keep my mind on God? Simple once sentence answer - I CAN'T.

A cleared mind allows me to focus on hearing His voice. I can renew my mind not by wondering about why X is/is not, but by keeping it on Him and on what His will is for me from day to day and moment to moment. If I am worried and concerned about so many trivial and random things, how can I ever hear Him as He promised I would be able to?