Rearrange

A woman shared with me how she loved to rearrange furniture. Her husband interjected that her habit was unhealthy—literally. They lived in an old farmhouse with large, spacious rooms. Their bedroom was on the top floor. One night, as he prepared for bed, he decided to surprise her in the dark bedroom. He crept to the doorway, took a couple long strides and leaped onto the bed. She wasn’t awakened by a jolt on the bed but a crash on the floor. Unbeknownst to him, she had rearranged the bedroom furniture during the day!

You might have felt like this woman’s husband through your life, expecting one thing but crashing to the floor in the dark instead. Or perhaps you can relate to the woman; you get restless and are consistently trying to change something in your life. It might not be your furniture. It might be your job, friends, church, or recognition. Perhaps you like your life to be really stable, but there’s that one area in which you crave change. Or you might be so resistant to change that you spend time and energy ensuring everything stays the same as much as possible.

Change is going to happen. You can’t avoid it. Your life on earth is about a growing relationship with God. If you’re staying the same, you’re not growing. That doesn’t mean your location or situation significantly changes, but if you’re not moving beyond where you are, God might be prompting you to grow deeper. He will have you move in one direction or another—and often in what seems to be multiple directions depending on the various areas of your life. Go deeper, wider, broader, higher, longer. Remember, when you take control of the rearranging, somebody might get hurt as they crash to the floor in the unexpectedness, but if you’re letting God rearrange in his timing, he will never cause you to crash in the darkness.