Who Moved my Cheese?

Are you familiar with the Spencer Johnson book with the above title?

Who Moved my Cheese?

This is not a children’s book, but rather a book for adults done in parable style that teaches us about our own human habits, routines and sometimes our stale thinking. This was a popular business and career book in the late nineties.

There are four characters in the story–two tiny mice and two humans–the size of mice. It’s an imaginative tale. The two mice are named Sniff and Scurry. The two miniature people are named Hem and Haw. As the story unfolds, the four of them are in a grand and angular maze looking for cheese. Sniff and Scurry act as their names suggest seeking, finding and if there is nothing to find they scurry along to the next destination. Hem and Haw also live up to their names. They are also looking for the cheese and upon finding it they hunker down feeling their work is done while Sniff and Scurry keep looking for other cheese even if they find some…they seek a back up plan. Hem and Haw relished meeting their goal and rested a bit in their accomplishment while the other two characters still sought out more locations of cheese. One day Hem and Haw entered their secret location and their stash was gone. “Who moved my cheese?” they wailed. In contrast, when Sniff and Scurry came upon a place where cheese had once been, they shrugged and slipped off further into the maze to seek out cheese somewhere else. Meanwhile Hem and Haw were analyzing, conjecturing, complaining and wondering about the original cheese lost instead of moving forward. In the grand scheme of things, who do YOU think found the most cheese?

This reminds me of my faith. If I hit a roadblock of unexpected disappointments do I hem and haw or do I try to scurry and sniff out a plan for moving forward?

The following quotes help us see a fuller and more active faith:

• “Faith is seeing light with your heart when all your eyes see is darkness.”
• “Faith, it’s all about believing, you don’t know how it will happen, but you know it will.”
• “Let your faith be bigger than your fear.”
• “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
• “Your faith can move mountains and your doubt can create them.”

2 Corinthians 5:7 says…

“For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

Matthew 17:20 says…

“He said to them, ‘Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.’”

On my faith journey, I pray for the strength and wisdom to trust the Lord and sniff and scurry rather than to hem and haw.