How Do You See Things?

I think I’m finally growing used to my new surroundings. 

Oh, I haven’t moved anywhere. 

I’m still in the same place but my place seems different. 

I got new counter chairs for my kitchen and had three pieces of furniture painted —a buffet and two chests of drawers. {Oh -- and I got a new little kitchen rug to stand on when I’m at my sink, too.}

I like all the changes, it’s just that my own house seems unfamiliar and it’s a little disorienting.
  

So now when I walk into my kitchen for coffee in the morning, instead of my old red counter chairs, the new blue ones are the first things I see. I ordered them online and they’re a lot bigger {and bluer} than I thought.

And did I mention I had to assemble them? Except I really couldn’t. 

I had a hard time just identifying all the parts on the instruction sheet that arrived with the two big boxes filled with chair legs, cushions and a red bag of assorted bolts, screws and an Allen wrench. 

So I called my 12-year-old nephew. 

He rode his bike right over with a pocketful of screwdrivers and spent the next two hours putting the chairs together for me. 

So he was {understandably} a little deflated when I wasn’t sure I liked the chairs.

Meanwhile in the rest of my house, my friend Shawna’s been transforming my dark vintage furniture with coats of white paint. 

The dark holes where they stood in the corners of my rooms are now so bright, it's almost too dazzling to look at. 

Although I've been wanting these furniture facelifts and new chairs for quite awhile, I wasn't sure I wanted them all at once.

Every room I walk into there's something new to greet me and I feel a little off-balance.
  

Isn’t that how God works in our lives? 

He's on the move. Always. And sometimes it's uncomfortable and unfamiliar and awkward.

He rearranges our priorities and shakes our circumstances. 
He moves people in and out of our lives and disturbs our routines. 
He shifts our hearts and nudges our souls.

He does this because he's moving us closer to him, to a deeper maturity. Our hearts move closer to him and we get a glimpse of how he sees our lives because he's looking at the things we can't see. 

He's looking at our future. 

When an unexpected turn of events or a difficulty moves into my little corner of the world, I spend a few days wringing my hands until I realize maybe there’s another way to look at it. 

My place hasn’t changed but I start to see my place differently.

That problem I was wringing my hands about could be a golden opportunity. 
The hassle might have a silver lining. 
The mishap might be a blessing in disguise.

When God moves in our lives, it changes what we see.

Because God is always moving, always maturing us, always working out his purposes in our lives, we have to decide if we’ll wade through the strangeness, the awkwardness to get to the next plateau.

Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God. - Heb. 6:1

I’m getting used to seeing my blue chairs {I told my nephew I'm not returning them}, and I'm liking what I see when I look at my lighter vintage furniture. 

And there is one thing I’ve been sure of since the moment I brought it into my house.

I really do love my little sky blue rug that lies under my sink. 

When I stand on it from my corner of the kitchen, I can see things in a very different light.

I'm having coffee with my friends at Holley Gerth's place at Coffee for your Heart and Bonnie Gray at the Faith Barista. My blogging friends there are serving up encouraging posts!