Running Ahead…
Some people get in trouble because they run ahead of God. An idea comes and they’re off! Sometimes there is prayer and preparation missing from the project, which will always become an issue at some point. But these inspired quick reactors don’t worry about such things. They are getting started right now!
Lagging Behind…
This is not me. I tend to hesitate. (I could benefit from being more like the quick starters.) I want to wait and see, assess and test, see how it feels. Which is why sometimes when a change needs to be made in my life, the Lord has to slip it in quick. If I think about it too much, I’ll wait.
The Lord really does prepare me, though. I’d been thinking all last fall that we were going to need to move sometime in the next year. With my husband working out of town so much and our youngest son graduating high school this year and probably going away to college … who would mow the grass? Or rake the leaves? Or shovel the snow? Snow happens … well, all the time here. Mostly in the winter (ha, ha!) but you never know. So I was thinking we should move to someplace with less maintenance and someplace smaller too…
Should We Move?
Someplace like one of the awesome condos across town! After some research, I really liked this idea. The condos were beautiful and we could rent a two-bedroom, two-bath for the same price we were already paying. I had a friend living in the complex and in January she showed me her lovely home. I looked at the floor plans online and some had an office too! There was one in particular I liked. I thought an end unit would be nice, not so claustrophobic. But I was told no one moves in the winter.
I called the property management places anyway. The first one said they had no openings, as expected. On the next phone call, a nice lady said they had a unit opening up the next week! It was the floor plan I liked and it was an end unit. The showing was the day after Scott got home. So we set up an appointment to see it.
Now?!
When we came to look at it–the end unit with the exact floor plan I wanted–suddenly I wasn’t sure. I didn’t know about the stairs. There were a lot of stairs. I thought we should wait. I didn’t know. But the leasing agent said the couple that saw it before us was really interested and she had two more showings booked. I quickly realized I couldn’t waffle. We had to go forward! Scott liked it. So, we said we could get our application in right away. And we did. An hour later. And we moved. Four days later!
We packed in 24 hours. Moved the big stuff the day before Scott went back to work. Then Kellyn and I moved for another week. You can’t really pack everything in 24 hours. And when you downsize suddenly … well, we still can’t park in the garage!
God’s Grace
But the house is absolutely beautiful with views of Big Mountain out my kitchen window (one morning in Feb. pictured above) and my office window. The stairs are a perfectly good daily workout … in addition to the workout room at the clubhouse and all the other amenities there. No yard work.
It really is perfect, more perfect than I could have imagined. And left to my own devices, I may have missed it, but God set up the circumstances so I had to decide right then. I had to go forward right then. I think that’s called—opening a door and giving a push! I’m so grateful He did. God is so good. He knows what each of us needs. When we ask Him to order our steps, He will. He’ll help us make the right decisions. If we need His Hand to come in front of us and slow us down a little, He will. Or if we need a little push, He’ll do that too.
He’s that good.
What about you? Does God usually have to slow you down or speed you up?