Hands -- Will Wingard

Hands
So tonight I had a thought.

I was looking at my hands and it struck me all things that my hands have done. Hands are funny things that don't make noise on their own. You have to make them. They are not always the most notable thing either. When we meet new people we don't stare at their hands. We just shake them, or use them for hugging, or maybe slugging. Our hands do have a way of being very useful though. Some of the things we do with our hands can make people stop and wonder or send them running. Back to me looking at my hands though. I was thinking about the different places, accomplishments, dirty work, pain, services, hands shook, and other various duties my hands have done. It is pretty amazing and yet tragic. These things that are attached to my body don't always seem to be attached. I have trained my hands to do certain things through repetition. Sometimes my hands will do things with very little or no thought put into it at all. I can scratch myself, pick my nose, dress myself, turn pages, change the channel, play video games, tie my shoes, feed myself, turn on my blinkers/wipers (thanks to Oregon), wipe myself, tear paper, and dial numbers with pretty much no thought. It is pretty interesting to think about. How often do our hands/bodies do things without or conscious thought (our brains on cruise control)? What have we trained our hands to do?
On the flip side of this there are times I have to think very hard about what my hands are doing. When I am typing, hammering, drawing, cutting, around my girlfriend, working on machinery, or fixing my car (if i am not careful this one will join the previous list), or taking pictures I must pay very care attention to what I am doing. It is not always easy to monitor my hands even though my mind controls what they do in the end. MY hands make me who I am. MY actions make me who I am. My actions reflect what I think. For my hands to even twitch I must first have a thought. Then I must choose to act on that thought. Next my muscle must respond to my choice. At this point my hand begins to move but in order for my hand to finish the action my mind must continue that thought to the end. My muscle must have the strength and endurance to finish the task. When i embrace someone's hand to shake it I am embracing all of their actions. They are embracing ALL of my actions. It is a special moment. I know people who judge character on a hand shake. What are they sensing about me in my hand shake? What do I want them to feel/see?
I want my hands to be pure, humble, strong, steady, unconditionally loving, just, loyal, serving, merciful, and patient. In order for this to be true I must change my thoughts. What I fill my head with should be exactly what I want my hands to do. What I train my hands to do should be exactly what I am thinking. I have made many mistakes. My hands have done things I regret. I apologize for my actions. Because my hands are connected to me what my hands do directly correlates to the rest of me. I cannot be hammering a nail if my body is not fully engaged. Unless I am giving that nail my full attention. My eyes must be glued to what I am doing, my hands must be moving, my heart must be beating, my legs must be supporting, my back must be strong and steady, and my mind must be fully present for me to hit the nail and not my hand.
My hands, my whole being has no choice but to do what I tell it to do. My hands happen to be the part that stuck out tonight. My actions have not always matched up to my words and my words have not always matched up to my actions, but when they do and when what they are doing/saying is from God and not myself it is amazing. I could do what God tells me to do each and every hour. Why I don't do what He tells me is not so much as a mystery as much as stupidness. I want to be the light I was made to be. I want to do what I was made to do. I want my hands to do what my hands were made to do. For this to happen it is going to take an act of God. God is going to have to show me how to use my hands. He is going to have to train my mind/heart/soul/strength how to use my hands. So here I am waiting before God, for Him to instruct, to show, me how to use my hands. How do you use your hands? What are people going to feel when they shake YOUR hand? What have you trained your hands to do? This is getting pretty long so I will end it now and get off of my "blog" box.