Email from an Angel

Well, a strange and wonderful turn of events happened yesterday evening. After spending the day trying to schedule a tour of a condo that we thought might be our place, and not making any progress, I was on the way home from work feeling a little anxious and a lot frustrated by how much time and energy it can take to do this whole looking for a place to live thing. I can't even imagine when it's over buying a house. We'll give that one some time.

I had just taken the exit off the highway into our town and was sitting at the stop light when I compulsively checked my phone to see if I had any new calls or emails. It's something I've gotten in the habit of doing since we've been calling and emailing so many different people. The little gmail icon was displayed in the top left corner, and I thought...hmph...probably another junk email. Normally that little gmail icon doesn't spark so much excitement, but lately, I've practically lived to see it.

It was no junk email though. It was sent from an angel. Well, it was the realtor we had met and submitted an application with before, but it might as well have been an angel. The subject line showed the address of the place we had applied for, and then said >> Fully Available. See, the only place we had applied to yet was our favorite, favorite place - you know, the one I've been talking about in previous posts - the one we weren't accepted for.

The traffic light turned green, but I tapped the email and had to keep reading. Between looking up at the road and back down at my phone, I made out words like "previously accepted tenants" ... "medical emergency" ... "preventing their move" ... "condo fully available" ... "interested?" ... "asap." My heart was racing as I skimmed it again to make sure I wasn't seeing things, and sure enough, it was available. I called Levi even though I was less than 5 minutes from home, then called the realtor and couldn't say "we'll take it!" fast enough.

He told me the only reason we weren't accepted in the first place is because the other applicants had dogs, and the owner has dogs, and she knows it can be difficult for dog owners to find a pet-friendly home. I harbored a tiny bit of hatred in my heart for pet owners all around the world for about half a second - as I thought to myself "are you kidding me??" - and then quickly didn't care any more because we had our condo!!

The realtor got in touch with the owner to tell her what was happening, and I tried to reserve my excitement until we really knew for sure that it was ours. Then at 6:20-something this morning when my alarm went off and I saw that gmail icon on my phone, I was two taps away from seeing the lease agreement on my screen through my blurry morning eyes. We signed this evening and will have access in three short weekends!

God knew our desires and brought them to pass even after we had long since let them go. And we are SO happy.

Ordering Our Ways

With a new year always comes new goals (or maybe old goals that were never realized) and refreshed motivations. For me there is always an extra spring in my step when I'm doing my everyday tasks - cleaning the house, organizing spaces, making menus - and even an extra excitement over tackling otherwise dreaded projects.

Because that's what you do when new years come, right? You realize everything is new. Everything is fresh, especially your motivation. You have that feeling that you're going to do everything right, and everything is going to be organized. And for a while, it probably is, until that motivation diminishes around the end of January. If you even last that long. ;-)

But something I was thinking about this morning during my devotional time, was the parallel between organizing your physical spaces and organizing your spiritual spaces. Or more accurately, I was thinking about how those two spaces are actually more similar and related than we may realize. When my physical spaces - mainly those in my home - are organized, they draw me into peace and tranquility, which helps me to also order my spiritual spaces. And especially when my spiritual spaces are ordered - when I'm drawing near to the Lord and making his ways my ways - it motivates me to keep my physical spaces ordered. The harmony between the two, especially the reflection of spiritual order in physical order is amazing.

Psalm 50:23 came to mind as these thoughts were rolling. It says, "The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!" Earlier in the psalm, the author explains God's order for sacrifices - how sacrifices void of thanksgiving are unacceptable. "Ordering our way rightly" involves so many things, including sacrifices of thanksgiving, prioritization of God's Word, obedience to his commandments, and yes, even responsible stewardship of our resources and organization of our homes. All these things compose our "ways." They are all intertwined, and they all please the Lord. And through their proper organization, God will show us his favor.

Happy New Year!

It's Just A Matter of Time -- Part I

For everything there is a season, 

and a time for every matter under heaven. -Ecc. 3:1

At the end of Spring 2010, just a week or so before finals were starting, I found myself with 5 papers to write, 1 to present, 2 additional ones from classmates to edit, and 9 days in which to do it all. I was stressed. And engaged. Which means I'd rather be planning the wedding.

Something I began learning that very week is that casting my anxiety on the Lord results in the most abundant life. More specifically, I began learning that when I choose not to be stressed about the circumstances that surround me, I have the freedom to enjoy other activities to the fullest. 

After figuring out my this is the ONLY way everything will possibly fit into 9 days schedule, I wrote it down in my journal and added, "I know that at the end of these 9 days, I will look back on this list, exhausted but alive, and remark on how faithful the Lord is to bring me through."

Eventually, this lesson about casting my anxiety on the Lord morphed into a lesson about the wise use of time (probably as an attempt to never wind up with that much work at the end of the semester again). This is a lesson I'm still learning, especially as I'm taking preposterous amounts Spanish, writing a senior thesis, working a job, and being a wife.

So something I've been thinking about recently, in light of still learning this lesson, is that in order to do everything excellently, I have to devote myself 100% to whatever I'm doing at the moment. Then when I move to something else, I have to leave the last thing behind and do that new thing to the fullest. When I'm doing Spanish, I'm doing nothing else and thinking of nothing else. When I'm done, I feel productive and accomplished, and have the freedom to just cook dinner without being stressed about how I didn't work hard enough at Spanish.

Whether it's Spanish, thesis, cooking, cleaning, shopping, or anything else, by living in this way, I can fully enjoy everything that I do, and I can do it well! This never worked when I was working on a project and compulsively checking my email, facebook, phone for texts, etc. Maybe I spent 2 hours on a project, but I was unfulfilled and frustrated at the end because I didn't really get anything done.

In the following journal entry from that spring, I said, "...I can give myself a cat nap, attend a couple bridal showers, watch 24 with Levi, or spend some time in school-less stillness with him to recharge myself. God has used these moments to remind me that I can both work and rest, and that He will give me the ability to do both excellently." And just as a shout-out to God's faithfulness...I am amazed to say that out of the 6 classes I took that semester, 5 of them were As and 1 was a B -- the best semester of my PHC career.

So I ask you. How do you use your time? I encourage you to do something productive even in those spare 5 or 10 minutes between tasks or scheduled engagements. And if you don't already, you should just try devoting yourself completely to one thing at a time, and see if your morale isn't improved even a little. (And get this. When it's time to be on facebook, you can be...without feeling guilty!)

Stay tuned for Part II, where I'll share some creative ways I've found to spend those spare minutes -- even if it's only 2!