Laying in bed this morning I was on my back looking at the ceiling fan over my bed. It was spinning fast. I was listening to the slight clicking sound that it makes when it is on.
Click. Click. Click.
I was thinking how frustrated I was with the sound because if I try to sleep with the fan on, the clicking noise keeps me awake. I love having the gentle breeze of the fan brush over me when I sleep. But because of that curses clicking, I get up and turn it off before going to bed each night. Then I roast in the night because I am so hot.
But this morning after waking, I turned it back on. I put on some peaceful and calming music and tried to clear my mind. I was seeking peaceful thoughts about personal aspects of my life. In between thoughts, I would pray and ask for knowledge, wisdom, and guidance.
Gratefully, I was favored with peace and insight.
I was also favored with insight into the fan. As I was staring at it spin round and round, the clicking started to bother me again. I thought I should just get up and turn it off before it becomes too annoying.
I was relaxed and feeling lazy so I did not budget. I just laid there staring at the fan wishing it would just be quiet.
Suddenly, I heard a voice with a simple message: GET UP AND FIX IT.
How hard is that?
Get up and fix it.
Get up and fix it.
That phrase kept going through my head.
After about a minute of trying to ignore that voice, I finally moved to obey that command.
I stood up on the bed and looked closely at the fan. I could not tell from whence the sound was coming. I jiggled the light covers and they appeared very tight and were not the source of the clicking.
I was then prompted to try twisting the whole light fixture. I actually turned it about 3 inches. I let go to see if the fan was still clicking.
Nothing.
The only sound I could hear was the soft wooshing of the fan blades as they spun around
There was no clicking!
I laid back down on the bed and stared up at the fan once again.
Still no clicking! SUCCESS!
As I was laying there marinating in my success, I became quite happy thinking about how tonight I will be able to sleep with the fan on.
But then another thought popped into my head. I equated this simple and menial experience to what to happens to me, and I supposed most of us during our lives. It happens at work, at home and in all aspects of our lives.
There are things that are broken, or annoying us, or just need to be eliminated from our marriages, work relationships, friendships, or just from within ourselves. All too frequently, we may want to do what I did this morning with the fan – just lay there and do nothing. Worse yet, we may just want to get up and turn off the phone switch to make it go away.
Just like I discovered, turning off the switch did not solve the problem. Actually, it stopped the noise but then created another problem: hours of sweaty and unproductive sleep.
So I ask, what things in your life that could be improved if you were to simply get and up and fix it?
I found that while I had been ignoring the problem with the fan for almost 6 months, that the solution to resolve it was simple and took less than 6 seconds.
Naturally, some of the challenges we face will not be solves in 6 seconds. There are some that may be. They are some that are harder and there are some that are very challenging.
Even so, let me encourage you to “get up” and make the effort to reduce at least some of them. If you are like me, you will be glad that you did.
The Umenum 