Don’t Miss Life’s Auditions

My son had to get an important audition today and struggled to make it happen. The reason why might surprise you.

A Stubborn Lock
Joseph and I woke up early today to get out of the door for his audition this morning. Joseph is in one of the top rated high school bands in Northwest Georgia. In fact, they are the Grand Champions of the region. And today was his chance to audition for All State Jazz.

As we went to the car, he tried to unlock the car with with his key. Normally unlocking the front door unlocks all the doors. Today it didn’t. It only worked on the single door. He tried the front passenger door again while I stood loaded down with musical equipment I was ready to throw into the back. The bass and amp weighed on me as he tried a second time looking at me quizzically.

I started to ask him to unlock the back passenger door so I could drop the weight of these items on the seat. As I began to speak, he leaned into the car to try something else. Still unable to unlock the door, he backed out of the car and walked around to the driver’s door. I followed him around, heavily laden, waiting for him to try another approach. It didn’t work.

A New Solution
He sat baffled as I tried my best to be patient. I asked if he could unlock the back driver door, and he just stared at me. Finally I said, “here,” and handed off the bass and amp. Then I walked to the driver door and leaned inside. I reached my hand back and manually unlocked the back door from the inside.

Immediately Joseph said “oh!” with a chuckle at his inability to see a simple solution. He had become so wrapped up in doing it one way, he had blinded himself to other possibilities. We were able to load up the car and make the trip. He performed a great audition, and we traveled back with a fully functioning car.

Getting Past the Problems
I don’t know what caused the problem with the car. It could have been a key turned the wrong way, a lose wire, or some other crazy scenario. What I do know is that there were other resolutions that were completely missed.

Often we get so wrapped up in the way we want things to work, we never stop to think of how they could work. We are so focused on following a particular routine or way of doing things we can’t fathom doing it any other way.

Yet there are often so many ways to accomplish what we want to do. Sometimes we need to get of our routines and see what other options are available to us. We can sit stymied while we miss life’s auditions, or we can get creative and enjoy the ride. The choice is up to us.