I decided to keep the moldings, built in's, and fireplace mantel white. Keep the beige walls, ditch the window treatments, and add plantation shutters. I recovered all of our furniture in neutral's. When all was said and done I wasn't satisfied. The vision in my head did not pan out in my everyday reality. It was killing me. I'm usually pretty decent at this. What had I missed?
Then, of course, I beat myself up over it. I had, surprise surprise, gone considerably over budget. In other words I spent more money than I should have. And it was still wrong. "I'm so dumb! I should've never changed it. Maybe I should just undo it all. Put the room back exactly how it was?"
Isn't this what we do with Jesus? Before we invest it all? We hem and haul, teetering on the fence. One foot in the world. One foot out. We finally decide to go "all in". Follow Him. Live our total lives for Him. We are psyched! We have a plan in our head of how life will now be.
In theory, it sounds like heaven on earth. Quickly, though, we realize this Jesus thing has rocked our world. What once worked in our lives no longer does. Old habits, that we know are not pleasing to the Lord, are so hard to change.
Many of us quickly get frustrated because, unlike others we know, our lives aren't better. Our heart has changed. But our lives still have obstacles. We try to "work" through it. We don't realize that God's grace has us covered!
One night, while watching TV, I looked at the bookcases. "That's it!" I exclaimed. Snoozing husband jumps a foot high out of my snazzy alligator metallic wing back chair. "Don't do that!" he sleepily replies. "What's 'it'?" I had figured it out! Just from laying on the sofa looking up. A new perspective. "I need to paint the back of the bookcases the same blue-gray-green as the accent color in the rug". Big smile from husband. "When would you like me to do it?" He knows me so well. "I" usually means "you".
Sometimes God just needs us to settle into life with Him. Just walk with Him. Enjoy Him. Get to know Him. Spend time with Him. Then one day, out of the blue, when He see's that we are ready He gives us a revelation. A revelation of who we are in Him. How our ordinary lives have been transformed, by His grace, into extraordinary. Your extraordinary may not be my vision of extraordinary. Nor mine of yours. But in The Lords eyes it is beautiful. Simply perfect in Him.
"Jesus said to her, 'Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?'"-John 11:40
