Spiders are fascinating. They are easy to notice when crawling on a wall or ceiling in a house. I have seldom been present when they are weaving their web.
Spider webs are created to catch things much bigger then they are. They are built to trap. They are built to stop movement of a larger insect. The webs themselves are almost invisible until they collect on a wall. They go from being a strategic tool that leads to food to screaming that something needs to be cleaned immediately.
Sometimes its hard to even notice a spider web. Especially outside, unless the sun is shining at a certain angle. We are surprised when we feel a spider web without ever noticing it was there. Yet many scream when they see a spider walking near them on a wall. People almost never miss seeing a spider.
While we fear spiders around us, we seldom fear their webs. I believe that life presents us constantly with webs to entrap us, to stop us from moving. They are as powerful as those built by a spider. And as hidden as nature has allowed them to be.
Webs in our life? Where? How? What are you talking about?
Our thinking and our thoughts many times work much like a spider. Full of movement, we feel the energy of our thoughts throughout the day. But I have found many times that our thinking is faulty, our assumptions poor, our conclusions rushed, and our certainty delusional.
With insistence and unwarranted belief our thinking begins, much like the spider, to spin its web to trap us without our even knowing it. Either we get stuck in our thoughts and defiant at anyone’s challenge or we stop moving because we think there is no more to learn.
It’s crazy. Were much bigger than a web and more powerful than a spider. We can read, write, text, love, and care. We can run, jump, travel, and see. But how well can we hear? How well do we question? How well do we check if what we are thinking is really sound?
Think of the rag or broom that you use to clean the cobwebs that have lingered for so long. Can those same webs that we detest and rush to clean be the same ones that are within us? Cobwebs look old and tired. When they overtake a vacant house they confirm the absence of life. Certainly our thoughts can’t be the same.
It’s not our thoughts but rather our thinking that traps us. Sometimes it’s our beliefs. Our logic is imperfect so our conclusions many times don’t add up. Our lives have remained in one place because our thinking has remained the same. We cling to beliefs that information around us either says is not true or sadly no longer fits.
That is why our heart, our faith, and our effort to care is so much more powerful for no cobwebs ever get in their way. They help repel the cobwebs in our thinking.
When our belief in God is strong, when our attitude is positive, when our insistence to help others is great, when we are willing to listen and learn, when we use effort as our strongest tool, and patience as our strongest ally we no longer need a broom. Cobwebs no longer exist in our life and our thinking becomes much more clear.