A Spiritual Adjustment

I have gone to a chiropractor for years.

You know what happens.  You lay down, and the doctor starts applying pressure in the strangest places.  You hear and feel internal adjustments happening.  Pops, cracks, joints moving, the breaking sound of the chiropractic table, giving way.  You know something is happening, but are a little worried that these sounds sound more dire than healthy.  At the end, you stand up straight and feel a bit taller, a bit more inline than when you came in.

Another rule of thumb is that the longer you wait between adjustments, the more pops, clicks, cracks, and bangs seem to happen.  More pressure is required to adjust; more techniques to align the spine are used, just because we skipped a couple of appointments!

What about spiritual adjustments?

I know that I have had several that the cracks and pops were loud and painful.  In readjusting my spirit, the more out of alignment I am, the greater the time, effort, and change is required to get inline again.

The first thing is that, like the chiropractor, God has to get me to lay down, to stop, to hold still.  Now God can do anything, but I have to be at the point that I actually am still, quiet, at rest, at peace.  This is the tricky part.  Yet, when I am in this state, alignment can begin.

Much like at the doctor's office, I am told or shown that my parts don't quiet work together correctly.  One thing is stronger, longer, shorter than the other and they just are not getting along.  This is sometimes a shock. 

"Really, my left leg is longer than my right?  No one told me!" 
"My lower spine is not supported!" 

Yet, when these facts are presented to me about my spiritual life, they hold no less astonishment, denial, repression, nor ignorance on my part.

"My ego is how big?"
"I want to be comfortable more than I want to be happy?"
"I try to please people more than I try to be loving to them?  No, that's not me!!!"

Then come the adjustments.

Trust me; deflating the ego is always a painful process.  It involves a re-adjustment of how I see myself, and how I wish to be in relation to my family, friends, church, community, nation and world. 

Living life to the fullest also is quite a process.  I know that my living takes place on the razor's edge of discomfort.  Being uncomfortable means that things need to change.  Yet, I love comfort.  I like not changing.  So, sometimes pressure needs to be applied to shift how I approach life.  The crack and pain in the neck is sometimes the only way to be able to turn my head and go in a different direction.

What is really nice is that if I go through these adjustments often, it only takes a tap, a small shift, a brief push to get me back into alignment.  Sometimes, a word, a smile, a story, a movie is enough for my spirit to align with God again.

I guess my whole life is really a quest to become better adjusted.