Instinct is a marvelous thing. It protects us, automates us, and it works fast! The other night we arrived at our cottage at about 9:30 in the evening. At this time of year, that means it’s pitch black dark out.

Before we can turn the lights on in the cottage, we have to turn on the main switch at the power box outside around the back of the cottage. That’s my responsibility. So, I went around back, bent down to flick the switch and put my head in a spider web.

My immediate reaction was probably the same reaction 99% of people have when they do that: I pulled back and started swiping at the web. I did what anyone would do and for three good reasons …

The first reason is the web is sticky and it feels kind of gross. Secondly, we’ve all seen enough scary movies and there are always spider webs in scary movies! And thirdly, there may be a spider attached to that web that is going to start crawling all over you.

In a matter of a nano-second, I reacted for these three reasons and started flailing away. Right about then, Lily came with a flashlight so I could see the next spider web – which I avoided – as I reached to turn on the water to the cottage.

That instinctive reaction not only comes into play with spider webs. Early this summer while riding my bike I rode right into a swarm of tiny little bugs. Instinctively, I closed my eyes and mouth to protect myself from getting an eyeful or mouthful of the tasty little morsels.

It was amazing that I could be riding at about 20 km’s per hour right into the bugs and still get my eyes and mouth shut in time.

Instinct works like a machine. There is no processing time; it’s all reaction that happens in a split second. You don’t have to think, analyze, choose, or decide; it’s automatic.

There are many other things that we do instinctively. When we put something bad tasting in our mouth, it’s automatic that we all make the same face and spit it out. Some of us have better expressions than others, and some spit it out in more appropriate places that others. But instinctively, we all react without even a thought.

There are tons of things we do instinctively that are just built in to our nature. But there are things that we react to because we’ve learned to and it has become automatic.

You don’t think about what to do when you sit in a car, but you do the same thing every time. When you go to shave, you start in the same place every time. There are countless things we’ve learned to be instinctive about.

… Except putting out the garbage! I still have to become instinctive about that.

Here’s the thing: We can become instinctive about many things, and one of those things is prayer. Our instinctive reaction to life should be to pray … and developing such an instinct requires repetition. The more you repeat the same action (prayer) to what happens in your life, the sooner it will become instinctive for you.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you learned to be instinctive about? Leave your comment below.