In this motivational book, four characters ponder Who Moved My Cheese? Their “cheese” is the reward of all their work in the past. They liked it where it was. But someone seems to have moved it. Each of the four characters responds differently. “Sniff” decides the smell of his “cheese” is gone and sets out to follow its scent. “Scurry” can plainly see his “cheese” is gone, so he runs off immediately to see where to find it. “Hem” stays where it was and keeps looking for its return. “Haw” laughs at himself for doing that and gradually sets out to discover where his cheese is now. The reader is invited to recognize each of the four as various aspects of one’s own personality. And of course, one should want to be like “Haw” because this aspect laughs at its mistakes and springs into action.

This reader found himself comparing Sniff, Scurry, Hem, and Haw to Meyers-Briggs personality styles. “Sniff” seems to know things intuitively. “Scurry” prefers to respond to what he sees. “Hem” would seem to be the perceiver. And “Haw” would be the thinker.

But this reader also enjoyed looking at “Sniff”, “Scurry”, “hem”, and “Haw” theologically, in terms of God’s providence. The “Sniff” attitude seems to be “What I have just comes to me. I smell it, or I don’t.” The “Scurry” attitude seems to be “What I have is what I find.” No “God” talk there! “Hem” seems to be one who does some “God” talk, saying “What God gave me is all there will ever be.” And “Haw” also seems to do some “God” talk, saying “What I have is what God is offering me for the time being.”

One might seek to integrate the “Sniff”, “Scurry”, “Hem”, and “Haw” aspects of one’s personality possibly by joining Abraham in Genesis 12 where God says, “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.”* Joining the story of Abraham, then “Sniff” might say, “This cheese does not smell good anymore; I’m going.” “Scurry” might say, “I want to see where God would take me.” “Hem” might say, “I’d rather stay here and keep everything the way I like it.” And “Haw” might say, “Show me where to find my new cheese!”

Or to integrate the four in a prayerful way, one might pray: “Direct us, O Lord, in all our doings with your most gracious favor and further us with your continual help, that in all our works, begun, continued, and ended in you, we may glorify your holy name and finally, by your mercy, obtain everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”**

Chaplain Everett Arnold
Lutheran Village at Wolf Creek

*The New Revised Standard Version, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1989.
**Occasional Services, A Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship, p. 238 (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House) 1994.