Hello fellow traveler.
On one occasion, I was talking to a friend about a work situation. It happened that a team of several people, including me, were part of a team. We did a good job together for several years. But as time went by, some external circumstances began to change, so that what we did before and had good results, was now no longer working.
When the results of our work hindered rather than helped, we sought to look at the situation from various angles, to discover what was our part and what area was out of our reach. When we realized what our part was, we designed the new structure to make the project run as smoothly as possible again.
We reorganized our responsibilities, and new people joined the team with the new mission.
However, things were not going as we had anticipated. There was one person in particular who had given some excellent ideas on how to adapt to the new situation, and it was precisely this person who had the tendency to do things the way they were originally done.
The situation perplexed me, and that’s when I sought some guidance from my friend, who had a lot of experience in situations like that.
Once I described the situation to my friend, it was a phrase she said that allowed me to see the possible reason for this situation. She told me:
–We are creatures of habit.
Wow, if I was perplexed before, well, I was even more then. For this person on the team, it was not that she did not care about the changes to be made, since they were her suggestions, valid, on point and very accurate. Still, it was only after several times that we as a team pointed out that her part of the job reflected “old” needs, that she realized that she was doing her part the “old” way.”
Something that left me thinking even more, when have I been in a similar situation? Wanting or thinking that I am doing something in a new way, only to realize that I was in a stage of only very good intentions. Admitting that I had also been in a similar situation was not pleasant for me.
Has something similar happened to you?
Realizing that there is a need to make a change is in itself a big step. And, at the same time, we have to keep walking. The path is the path, the path is not the destination. We must move forward.
Once my team mate was able to consciously see and admit that her activities did not reflect the agreed-upon changes, it took her some time to get used to the new way of working. And once she achieved it, the team once again worked like a Swiss watch, with elegance and precision.
It wasn’t that all that the rest of us had an instant performance upgrade, but it was for this colleague that it took longer, in part because of her blind spots, and her super ingrained work habits.
In the desert, Moses made a covenant with God, in which the people of Israel committed to fulfill what God had said. And Jesus presents us with a new covenant. As if the agreement had to be updated. It reminds me a lot of the teamwork situation, and many other personal situations, in which it was necessary to renew, update, change, do and/or see life differently.
How are you doing with the changes in your life? Is it easy for you to realize when there is something to change? Or it’s difficult for you.
Renewing previous agreements in your life, whether due to a need for change, or because there are things that have been forgotten and must be remembered, is of great support to continue on the right path, and leave old things behind, which are no longer of service.
If the Spirit leads you, I invite you to look at an aspect of your life that may “no longer be working.” Is there a need to change something? Do you need to renew something? Are you willing to renew that aspect of your life?
As my expert friend told me, we are creatures of habit. And if it is difficult for us to change, the invitation may be to adopt the habit of constant renewal.
I clearly remember the beginning of the conversations between my mother and my aunts when we arrived from Torreón to Zacatecas for a visit, a city that was 5 hours away when driving. The first question after the greetings, hugs and kisses was: “What’s new?
And it is the question that perhaps Jesus the carpenter asks you and me today, What’s new?
Jesus himself made a new covenant, a new agreement. Something needed to change. Is there anything that God invites you to change in your life? If that’s the case, what is your part of that new agreement? If you are willing to see what you don’t see, to be able to do what you haven’t done, you can tell Jesus the carpenter to let you know, and then, together build something new.
The next time you meet Jesus the carpenter, he may ask you, what’s new?
Marisol
P.S. We can hear about new agreements, new covenants in the readings for Corpus Christi Sunday, year/cycle B.
