Auto-Pilot

Most of us have experienced those moments when our bodies are on "auto-pilot". It is a situation in which we've performed a task so many times in the past that our bodies just carry out the necessary action without our brains becoming actively involved. It may be something as simple as getting out of bed and showering in the morning. It could be much more complicated, like driving to work. It's a bit scary to finally engage your brain at the office and wonder how you got there!

Some of the most interesting "auto-pilot" moments for me happened when I was working for an inventory field office. Our job was to take a team of counters to a store, split up, count the stock, and key our counts into little machines attached to our hips. At the end of the inventory, all our data would be combined on one computer, and we would present the store manager with his inventory report.

For those of us collecting the data, the ability to be both fast and accurate meant being able to delegate two separate tasks to two separate parts of our bodies. Our eyes alone were responsible for counting - no hands allowed. Our hands alone were responsible for keying - no eyes allowed. Any time either body part was used to help perform the other's task, one of the two tasks was neglected, and our productivity plummeted. It was essential to focus each member on its assigned task.

To be fair, not everyone is cut out for this type of work, because to be any good at it, it requires relearning how to count without using your fingers to guide your eyes, as well as relearning how to key a numeric pad without looking at what your fingers are doing (or at a screen). In essence, it requires your brain to "trust" what each member is doing without requiring the other to intervene. It takes a LOT of practice.

Once I had been doing that job for about a year or so, I began to have those occasional "auto-pilot" moments. I would finish a shelf unit without remembering if I had counted everything, yet when I looked back, all the stock was tagged as counted, and all the data was in my machine. It became almost scary the day I "woke up" at the end of an aisle that had to have been close to a hundred feet long, and I realized I had just counted the whole thing by myself!

Sunday morning's special music held another "auto-pilot" moment for me, but this one was different in one very important way. I had not spent over a year training my body to do what it did. A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to replace someone in an upcoming quartet number, something I had not participated in before. Because of the short notice, we only had the opportunity to practice the piece together a few times, and every time we practiced, I missed notes here and there. Apparently, it wasn't obvious to anyone but me...or at least if it was, they didn't say anything about it.

When our time came to sing, it was a genuine "trial by fire" moment for me in front of the whole congregation, yet somehow I felt no fear. There was only peace. There was even a sense of enjoyment. When the music stopped, I suddenly realized that I had sung the entire piece without a mistake. Only God could receive credit for something like that, because the end result didn't come from within me. I was not the one in control. This is what it feels like to have His Holy Spirit working through me. It's an incredibly liberating experience.

Control? Who needs control? That's what I have Him for! We serve a wonderfully awesome God, One who can take a simple, weak moment like that in my life and use it for His glory. When I am weak, His greatness is shown in me. To God be the glory!!

"But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence." - 1 Corinthians 1:27-29

"For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me." - 2 Corinthians 12:6