Thought for the Week
Imagine life as a Funnel, wide at the top and gradually narrowing. The top is the start of your life, the bottom the end, and you’re a beautiful marble thrown into it. In a closed system your purpose would be simple: You might have a rough start, and the Funnel might be bumpy at times, but it would basically be a straight shot to the bottom.
Only it isn’t a closed system, it’s an open one into which other marbles are constantly being thrown. In other words, it’s everyone’s life, resulting in variables like these:
- Marbles tossed in long before you arrived dented and scratched the surface, affecting the smoothness of your roll
- Nearby marbles regularly carom off each other into you, sending you off course
- Some marbles, enamored with fake purposes like hedonism, materialism, self-worship and other addictions, begin moving sideways, bumping you still further off course
- You fall in love with a gorgeous cat’s eye. You marry and have adorable baby marbles. And you love them so much that when they go astray, you veer off to rescue them
- The Creator, who seems to have a far more complicated plan than yours, frequently tilts the Funnel, intentionally sending you careening toward other marbles
So you can’t just roll to your goal, because others, including the Funnel’s Creator, refuse to play by your rules! Where’s the fun in this Funnel?
Early in our marriage, my wife and I adopted a lop-eared bunny named Flopsy-Jean. One morning an earthquake struck, and Flopsy squeaked at me in terror, “Make it go away!” I explained as best I could that I had no control over earthquakes. But she didn’t believe a word of it. She gave me that “you have betrayed me” look pets are so good at, and hopped off to the pantry to hide.
Like Flopsy-Jean, we think everything is about us, and feel keenly betrayed when our appeals fail to bring reparation. We persist in believing we live in a closed system. But we don’t. So, does that mean our lives have no purpose? To the contrary, it means they have a greater purpose than any we could ever invent.
Some years back, in a particularly dark section of the Funnel, I asked myself, “What is it I want?” But there was no answer. And then one day I realized I’d been asking the wrong person. I believed in the Funnel’s Creator, but had somehow gotten into the habit of thinking the Funnel was mine. (Honestly, if it was, I’d have lost all my marbles long ago!)
So I did an experiment: Every time I had the impulse to ask, “What is it I want?” I’d ask the Creator instead, “What is it You want?” And soon a voice began to whisper back…
“Well, it’s about time.”
“For you do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of your Creator.”
~Deuteronomy 8:3
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Excellent post, Mitch. Excellent question at the end there to ask God!
Thank you, Priscilla.
Good one…I enjoyed this Mitch. 🙂
So glad to hear that, Janet.
“What do You want, God?” It should be the first question I ask in every circumstance. Still working on that. Thanks for the reminder, Mitch.
My privilege, Rob. I regularly need the reminder too.
Wonderful words of wisdom. 🙏🏾
Thank you, Dora.
Beautiful Mitch. Makes me think of fractals, which I love to think about, and how they are a perfect picture of God wrapped around all of our chaos. And, I also have a cat that thinks I should control the weather for him. lol
;>)
Wow!
I certainly enjoyed this read. ☀️
Delighted to hear that, Andi.
Loved this, Mitch! No wonder I can never find my marbles.
;>)
Beautiful analogy with truth and wisdom. Love it!
Thank you, Peggy!
I love the idea of the funnel Mitch. We so often think our lives are ours to control, at least to a certain degree but those other marbles…not to mention the funnel. Great post will think about it more while I’m running this morning ✨
Happy to provide food for thought, Kate.
I thought that everything was fine. My soulmate and I living in love and happiness and as far as I was expecting at least for another twenty or so years. The Lord had other plans which were not known to me. Lost my husband, sold the house, returned to my homeland the US and felt like looking up and asking What now Lord? Well, I did get some answers, my life goes on and I do have many blessings to count, two cats who keep me amused, and the knowledge that at the end of my long journey I will be reunited with the one I love.
<3
Thank you for an intriguing visual lesson on life as a funnel. Flopsy-Jean definitely brought home your point-and so did you with your reminder to ask God to point us in the right direction. 🙂
Wonderful post Mitch! Yes we are often asking, or blaming, all the wrong folks. Only Jesus really knows the answer.
Amen, Pete.
A blessed reminder – great post!
Thank you, Mary!
True wisdom, Mitch, as we talk more than listen for our Creator’s voice!
Wow! Love this excellent post Mitch. Asking “What do you want?” makes all the difference.
It does indeed, Alegria.
What a great analogy, Mitch. That second question is so much better, because the answer is not only possible, it’s what we’ve been set up for all along! I was recently left behind by my family, who got “tired of waiting” and left moments before I was ready. Part of me wanted to believe I’d been abandoned, but the Lord gave me “divine perspective,” and I realized Jesus wanted me all to Himself that day. I wasn’t abandoned, I was on assignment! (The story of that day will appear on my blog soon. 😉 )
Blessings,
Annie
I look forward to reading that blog post, Annie (even though I already know how it ends ;>).
Aw, man, am I getting that predictable? 😕🙄
Normally no, Annie, but you just told me.
Excellent advice. It’s an easy trap to fall into, thinking the funnel/world belongs to us!
It is indeed!
Very interesting analogy!
He IS there, and He is NOT silent.😉🤠
Very true, C.A.
I love this analogy! Very true!
How creatively compelling!
Thank you, Joy.
Loved your “funnel vision” analogy, Mitch! Learning to ask Him to guide my EVERY step. Thanks for the thought-provoking blog.
My privilege, Mary. And “funnel vision” is a great way of putting it! Hope you and your family are thriving, btw.
I would want to think of myself as a steel ball bearing. Impervious and with no fear of any other marbles being able to hurt me. I am the most fragile of glass though, already cracked and near breaking.
Many of us are.
What a wonderful analogy. We’ve all been knocked around in the funnel by other marbles … some with lousy outcomes but some of those knocks sending us to better places whether we realized it at the time of the ‘collision’ or not. From now on I will probably ask myself just where I am in the “FUNNEL” when I experience a ‘collision’ & where is that knock sending me?
Πολύ καλή σκέψη. Να έχεις μια όμορφη μέρα
Ευχαριστώ. Κι εσύ.
“There is always inequality in life. Some men are killed in a war and some men are wounded and some men never leave the country. Life is unfair.”
John F. Kennedy
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