Programmed thinking

Finally made time to go and visit my dentist before I left India. Normally there is a sign which says " Please remove your footwear " so once I reached there my hands automatically went to remove my sandals. When suddenly I was stopped by the same board which had a tick mark and said " Please wear your footwear" . For a second I thought I was reading it wrong but no it really did say please wear your footwear. To add to the confusion some people had left their footwear outside.

Having checked the signs again I went in with my footwear only to have people look at me with a sense of, who does he think he is wearing his footwear inside. Soon I realised I was the only one wearing my footwear. Then I began to think how could people have read it and still left their shoes outside. Or it would make more sense that they saw the sign and assumed that it was asking them to remove their footwear as that’s the norm.

While I used to do consulting for organisations during our initial diagnosis and our interviews we will try and see if there is a pattern of programmed thinking. Meaning to say are our clients used to thinking in one way in a given area of responsibility or situation. And most often we find that it is true and first thing that we do before starting our intervention is work through this aspect and make them see things as they are in reality.

Even as I was pondering and waiting for my turn to meet the dentist, I began to think even in my Christian life there are many areas that I am programmed to think in one way. For eg : if I had addressed an issue before, with the wisdom of GOD and by his Grace things got sorted next time around I am programmed to think that GOD will do it the same way and in doing that start to lean on my own understanding of things. There are certain areas where by default I am used to thinking ah I know hoe GOD works in times like this and to my disappointment many a times I am wrong and GOD works through totally different ways.

Last night in our house group we read this quote given to us as part of our material for discussion

“ We see how dependent a little infant is on its mother; and such must we be in the arms of God. We must undertake nothing in our own strength: in no circumstances whatever may we lean to our own understanding: whatever is devised, or whatever is done, the creature must be nothing ; but GOD must be all in all.” Charles Simeon

This really put things in perspective in my mind. It is all not new it is more like a reminder during times when we are most prone to think and lean on our own understanding. It is not an easy lesson either for someone like me who learns more through experiences and by doing things more than once, the tendency is to look at a familiar situation and feel confident that I can work through it. Who thought that a visit to the dentist would prove unusually insightful.