UP & DOWN: Elevator-ology

Houston is known for its hospitals. Like, say, Texas Medical Center. Hospitals have elevators. Houston has lots of — many, many, many — elevators.

In the past year, I have become a quick study of elevator-ology. Assuming it’s all spiritual warfare, please pardon my diversion to and fro a few floors of logic here — perhaps even a good word or two — while I speak of elevators.

Push the button, up or down. And wait. Sometimes you wait a long

long

Long

time …

to go a couple floors.

That’s if you’re lucky.

Actually, if you’re lucky …

You might even know WHERE you’re going — And get there in good time.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! WE HAVE A WINNER!

Many times, if you’re like me, you’re just winging your way through most of this chaos and, thank God and an over-worked Guardian Angel, you eventually make your destination.

Diversion …

Back in North Carolina, for 8 years, I volunteered at a local Roman Catholic hospital. This meant that once a month I called on the new, critical, and recommended patients for eight hours. It was a small enough place that I got to know my way around. But, every now and then, I’d have a seemingly long and panic-laden dream wherein I was lost in the bowels of an infinitely large hospital … and no matter my mapping, moving, and moping … I was hopelessly lost.

Till I awoke, that is. That’s the way the dream always ended, with me waking. That hospital wasn’t that big so, hey, just a bad dream.

Aha!

Come back with me to the present moment; a few days ago.
The dream, cleaned up and real, was — well — real.

I thought I was on a certain floor and I pushed the elevator car’s button accordingly. This took me to a very nice floor, which was wrong nonetheless. Not knowing of my error I wondered around for a few minutes, muttering to myself and looking for a friendly face — any face — to no avail. I finally twisted my way back to the elevator and there met a man who, upon inquiry, drove home the fact that I was on the WRONG floor. Well … yeah! Of course! (It was all so bizarre I wondered if HE were an angel.)

When I finally arrived at the correct one, I hit the floor running. No probs, mate.

But, I remembered the dream. And, upon entering my destination — the room of a young parishioner — I related my experience, and the dream, to the parishioner’s mom. Which led to her telling me of one of her dreams — which also involved elevators and hospitals.

Friends, this brings us back, full circle, to the point where you started reading this poor blog post titled, “Elevator-ology.”

[One more diversion … As you probably know, I rarely turn on the TV. But, the other night I did. I poked around to T. D. Jakes (who really can be fine entertainment) and my 4-year old princess, Helen, said: “Dad, he said ‘God’ — this is a show about God!” Affirming her, she and I watched for about 5 minutes till she suddenly hopped up and said, “Sorry, Dad … I’ve got to get away from all this yelling.” Ha! ]

Anyway.

Elevators.

Sometimes, you push the button (let’s say the DOWN button) and you wait. You stare. You speak to passers-by. You move out of the way when the UP car releases passengers …

Now, friends, here is where you might make your first mistake. The elevator may change from UP to DOWN in the same instant. And, if not paying attention, you may miss your flight. Worse still, others may decide to jump on it at the last minute thereby doubling your discomfort about yourself and your place in this, oh, planet.

Fools.

You, of course, hate fools. Those are the ones that hop on the elevator — whichever, UP or DOWN, direction it’s heading — deciding any direction is better than none. You know the ones, they beckon you to join them justifying it by saying, “Oh, we’ll just ride it down and it’ll come back up!” (Yes. Well, duh!)

Then again, even fools are right every now and then.

(Don’t that make you mad?)

So, anyway, you stand there and wait for the LIGHT or the DING or BOTH. (I’ve even waited so long that the LIGHT and DING didn’t register, among multiple doors, and therefore, missing BOTH, I was the fool who missed the car either way! It’s really bad when those who rode it down come back up and stare at you missing the car again. Anyway …)

The theology part.

Sometimes we are tempted to get on the full car, much like the one pictured above, knowing full well that we should wait and be patient. Sometimes we, foolishly, decide to go DOWN a while assuming we’ll be going UP again soon. This is a waste of time. At other times, we miss our opportunity to get on board due to lack of attention, distractions. Then there’s the awful mistake of relying on others … “Fourth floor, please” … to do the right thing (punch the button) for us. Gee, can that ever be frustrating! Etc.

If you read the above paragraph within the context of our spiritual quest, you get the picture.

Till this point I’ve failed to mention one scenario that happens:

You — even a group of people — stand there waiting on an elevator car only to realize, after 5-10 minutes, that no one has even pushed a button.

In short, when it comes to salvation, it’s best to plan your destination, ask assistance of qualified guides, don’t waste time, prepare accordingly and …

well …

just take the stairs.