A Practitioner’s Perspective

by Ellen Fenner, RScP

Have you ever played Jenga? It’s a game where rectangular wooden blocks are stacked in a tower and the object of the game is to remove them from the middle one by one without toppling the whole thing.

When we decide to pursue a deeper spiritual understanding of ourselves, the process is not unlike playing Jenga. Over time we create our lives as an edifice that grows taller and taller only to discover along the way that our foundation wasn’t necessarily constructed to support the height and weight we’ve stacked on top of it. It seems impossible to remove any of it for fear of losing ourselves in a heap.

Making the choice to examine our selves on a deeper level is a powerful decision. We being to tap on the parts of our lives that seem loose to see if they can be removed easily. We then celebrate our success each time we release an old memory or a habit that has plagued us for too long. Each step reveals to us which parts of ourselves are creating the actual scaffolding that supports our existence.

But the actual game of Jenga, as well as the metaphorical one, are not played in isolation. Other players are also poking and prodding the tower to look for weak spots. People and situations in our lives inadvertently touch vulnerable places in us to reveal unhealed areas that topple us emotionally. In those moments we may decide to give up the game completely by abandoning a relationship or quitting a job, or we can take the opportunity to rebuild, using the lesson to inform us about how to better construct our foundational beliefs in order to create a life that isn’t so easily swayed.

I have discovered that in Jenga and in life there is much satisfaction in reconfiguring the pile of blocks that represents the parts of my life that weren’t really holding anything up at all; in creative ways, in beautiful ways, and ultimately, in strong ways. The real power of the game is found in the rebuilding.

Come play “Jenga” with us. We’ll cheer you on as you create a foundation based in spiritual truth that you can trust with your life.