The Sock Solution

I struggled to fall asleep. The night wasn’t cold, it was freezing! I shivered in my blanket trying to keep warm; the winter had come in full force this year, and was early on top of it. I had no time to get my extra blanket from the storage. I wrapped my sheet, blanket and bed cover tighter around me, hoping that would help keep the little heat I had trapped inside. It was no use; I was fighting a losing battle. I was supposed to be asleep but it was too cold to sleep. A dead numbness crept through my toes; I could feel the icicles having a feast on my blue, frozen feet. I thought of everything I could think of to keep them warm, I rubbed them against each other, smacked them against the edge of my bed, and tucked them underneath me…none worked, and those cold parasites still gnawed away at me. I had to get rid of them, but how? Then, the thought popped into my head…socks! If I had a pair of socks, they would help keep me warm. Wait a minute; I do have a pair of socks, they are on my chair, not more than two feet from my bed. They were so close, yet to get them meant that I would have to get out of my covers and put them on my feet. Oh how I wanted those socks, but I dreaded the thought of climbing out of my bed to get them. The biting cold persisted! I tossed back and forth, trying to keep warm, without having to expose my body to the real cold outside of my coverings. Finally I had enough, here I was exerting all this extra energy to generate heat, when all I had to do was get out of bed and put on my socks.
With a courageous breath I swung my covers back and sat up, surprised that it wasn’t much colder outside of my nice protective blanket. I grabbed my socks, slid them on my feet and slithered back under my bed trappings. The entire episode took only six seconds. It wasn’t long before my feet thawed out and defrosted; I relaxed a bit already feeling the benefits of my newly acquired tool to combat the cold. Once warmth spread throughout my whole being, I felt my eyelids flutter and close; I fell into a deep, peaceful, warm sleep.
I wonder how many people are like that. They struggle to find solutions and answers for their problems, when not more than an arms reach away is the answer. Jesus is often right there by our beds, just waiting to be called upon. He is more than willing to help us with our problems and tribulations if we just reach out and call upon Him. But we foolishly try so hard to do things our own way, and we fumble and flop about, struggling with life, while all the while help is right there. Yet, we think that it will be more work if we strip away all the things that we assume are going to help instead of reaching out, and grabbing a hold of Him.
However, when we finally get tired of struggling with ourselves and all of our useless efforts and make that extra effort to get help, how easy life becomes, and we realize that the task that we thought was at first going to be “oh so difficult,” turns out to be much easier than we expected. If we call out first to Jesus before we begin our work, or day or whatever it is that we are doing, it will actually help us in the long run.
Tonight, I’m putting on my socks before I get into bed.