HAND ME THE HAMMER, PLEASE!
Responsibility. What a nasty word that can be! A word with six syllables and each syllable pounding its oughts, shoulds and duties like blows of a hammer.
I have been reading a tale by Charles Kingsley called The Water Babies. In the story, Tom, a chimney sweep’s boy was forced, in a regular day’s work, to shinny up chimneys with a cap pulled over his face pushing a flat brush above him to dislodge the soot which fell upon him and down into the hearth. In the mid 1800’s this was a common practice. The master sweeps were too big to go inside the large chimneys and so small boys of about six years of age were employed for the task.
How did Tom manage his responsibilities? Tom seems to have balanced those responsibilities in his mind as though they were on one end of a see-saw.
He “cried when he had to climb the dark flues…And laughed the other half of the day when he was tossing halfpennies with the other boys.”
Thankfully, we no longer use destitute little boys to sweep our chimneys free from soot. Any responsibilities we have will be light in comparison, even if they do weigh us down.
Still, I think “responsibility” is a word that is too long, too onerous and too debilitating. It is much better if we break this one word in two. Word number one: response. Word number two: ability. Instead of responsibility being a ball and chain around my ankle, the power of responding to demands is in my control.
Some demands on my time and energy are non-negotiable. The demands upon Tom’s time and energy were to work for his employer, so, “…he took all that (work) for the way of the world, like the rain and snow and thunder, and stood manfully with his back to it till it was over.” Some jobs in life are just like that. I need to tough them through, knowing I have strength enough for what must be done.
Some demands on my time and energy are optional and I have the ability to sit down and sort them out. One day I wrote each demand or desire for my time and energy on a separate square of paper. Some I put in a basket named “Essential”, the others into a basket called “Not Essential”. Then I put the papers in the “Essential” basket in an order of priority. The result was not perfect, but it helped a great deal and I learned that when a demand comes my way, I have the ability to respond thoughtfully instead of giving a knee-jerk reaction.
Teddy Bears have no ability to respond. They just sit there. They do not move. There is a time for me to be a Teddy Bear! Many a hasty unconsidered response might have been averted if I had waited quietly like a Teddy Bear. But I also have a brain! I have the ability to respond wisely.
A deer’s response ability is limited. It reacts to a stimulus; if that stimulus drives it to cross the busy highway it does not have the ability to respond wisely.
I can instinctively react to the demands that sail towards me, badger me, wheedle for my attention, assail me, coax me, or overwhelm me. But, I am not a deer or a Teddy Bear! I am a human being! God has given me a valuable tool, a powerful tool. My mind has the ability to sort these demands, and respond in wisdom so that I may live in harmony with God in my body, my mind and my spirit.
Please, next time you see me holding my hands over my head to shield myself from the never ending hammer-blows of responsibility, remind me to grab the hammer and break that word into two.
by Andrea Kidd
