My life is spent in holes more times than its not. Some are deep and some are not so deep. I have this maniacal tendency to go from one hole to another, rarely staying above ground long enough to understand what above ground looks like. Instead, I’m repeatedly looking up from the bottom of some hole that I don’t necessarily remember falling into. But…here I am again.
Some of the holes are familiar as I’ve been in them a million times before. Some are new. Some are similar to one’s I’ve been in before. Some remind me of others that I’d forgotten about. But they’re all holes, and when you’re standing at the bottom looking up, they all look a lot alike.
Our Shovels
The thing about these holes of ours is that we’ve dug most of them. And if in those rare cases we didn’t dig them, we probably contributed in some way. Standing at the bottom, all we have to do is look and we’ll probably find a shovel in our hands. The shovels are varied, but they all dig some really deep holes.
Greed
Greed will dig a deep hole, every time. The hole of greed is one within which we will find ourselves entirely alone. And it is likewise a hole where there will be no one around to assist us in the climb that we’re going to have to take to get out of it. It is a desperate sort of hole that alienates and isolates, and that makes for a deep hole.
Desire to Please
We want to be liked. We want to be validated, approved of, embraced and accepted. Our decisions are not determined by ethics, the need of the moment, the needs of others, wisdom or anything other than how to make the decision pleasing to others. If pleasing others drives the decision, the hole will be deep.
Fear
Fear causes us to be blindly reactive, functioning out of a protective motive. Self-preservation dictates our agendas and drives our choices. It becomes the singular focus that renders us blind to any other choice. Larger issues are ignored or missed altogether. And once we’re in the hole we’ve dug, we too fearful to get out of it.
Mediocrity
We just don’t care. We’re not motivated, we’ve lost our passion somewhere in some place we can’t find, or don’t care to find. We’ve become passive and we’ve decided to figure out how little we can do to just get by. A work ethic becomes irritating. A vision perturbing. And so we compromise our lives to an early death. Such holes are deep.
Impulsivity
We’re rash. We’re reactionary. We respond on impulse which lacks thought, wisdom and acumen. We’re flying by the seat of our emotional pants. And with such a sporadic approach, we’re rampantly digging holes that shouldn’t have been dug in the first place. And these holes leave us in places we shouldn’t be, wondering where these places are.
What holes have you dug? And what holes do you plan on digging. You’ve got a shovel in your hand. You might want to determine exactly what it is.
Craig Lounsbrough
M. Div., LPC