A Step Toward the Plank

When you do a basic task with the opposite hand that you're used to, it creates new neuro-pathways in your brain. You get more wrinkles. For example, try brushing your teeth with your left hand for a while, and you'll get quantitatively smarter.

I'm wondering if the same thing can't be done for your soul.

In a religious context, I'm wondering if you can make your soul glow brighter by doing things in a different way - figuring out new ways to love people, to respect them, searching in different places for God, finding yourself in uncommon waters.

I guess I'd like to look at it like a 9 to 5 job. At the end of the day, I know I'm not made for this type of work. No matter how much I enjoy doing the things that I do in the office, the monotony of coming into work in the morning and leaving in the evening, the schedule of it all, the repetition - it gets to me. I love my job, but I dislike the format.

Think about your spiritual life that way - what if even if you enjoy to the fullest every aspect of it, you feel refreshed by it, you relish in it, the fact that you have a pattern frustrated you? Isn't that sometimes the case? Even if you're meeting dynamic people and having great discussions, don't those discussions tend to flow in patterns? Doesn't it feel like you've had the same conversation before? Reliving the same moments with different people?

What fascinates me about Christian theodicy is that its an ethos that accepts (although many seem to struggle with that acceptance) of striving for a goal that is out of reach. Being Christ-like, living with a pure heart - these are things that a follower should look toward, but knows he or she will never, ever achieve.

In Genesis, and this may just be a Hebraic reading of it, God lays down laws for mankind. But throughout the Torah (and continuing into the Nevi'im and Kethubim) God's laws are like an arrow that he's shot into the distance - it only gives direction. God points off somewhere and commands to head toward it. This view contradicts the narrow alternative that God gives strict commandments. When seen as a moral homily, the story of creation and redemption really becomes about moving in the right direction, not necessarily about taking the "right path".

But it's a direction you'll walk your entire lives without reaching the arrow. I'm wondering if along the way, some experimentation on pacing, the path, and method of travel might be done to shake off the cobwebs of faith and give new perspective. I assume God wouldn't care if you did cartwheels as long as you were headed in the right direction.

What are some things that you can do differently in your spiritual life that might bring greater joy to you and your loved ones? Could it be as simple as using your left hand? And that raises another question - if we have more than one hand, and we tend to utilize one far more than the other, is there a correlative to the soul? If the soul has many faculties, isn't it possible that we only lean on one most of the time?

If this is the case, how can we stretch those other faculties and get ready for the big game?

I hope you'll appreciate that I've used over 4 different analogies to express the same basic idea. I couldn't have planned it better.