Lightning Speed

Wow, has this last week been a whirlwind.  8 days ago Mark accepted a call to be Director of Worship at Christ Memorial Lutheran Church in St. Louis, Missouri.  And we frantically began to clean, spruce up, and pack.  Mark mostly got the "sprucing up" part, and I got the cleaning and packing.  And packing and cleaning.  And more cleaning.  And a little more packing.

And between Tuesday and Friday we got the house ready to put on the market.  Which included spending about 6 hours on Thursday cleaning the grout on our tile floor.  And had me vowing never to get a tile floor again.  About half of our house is tile.  I had a homemade solution that really does a good job of cleaning the grout, but not without some elbow grease.  And a little gadget slightly larger than an electric toothbrush.  And me, sitting or kneeling on the floor, and having to go to the sink about every 4 or 5 tiles to rinse out the sponge. Pretty much like doing 6 hours of the thigh master.  And then being crestfallen when I finished and saw there was a pasty coating across the floor, which didn't come off on the first, second, or even third steaming.  I was disheartened.

There was also about 4 hours on Friday morning scrubbing shower and tub.  And more thigh master.

And there were windows to clean.  And clean again.  I hate streaks.  Our living room is basically 2 sliding glass doors and a big plate glass window.  They give a spectacular view of our pool and yard, which I love.  but did I mention streaks?

Brianna helped (a lot) by cleaning and packing her room, packing up a bunch of pictures, and pitching in when the grout cleaning looked like fun.  (That ended about 20 minutes later when it no longer looked like fun).  Matt mostly hung out in his room on the computer, trying to pretend like we weren't moving, and trying not to be spotted lest we give him a job to do.

By Friday afternoon we were out of time, and said, "it'll have to be good enough."  Our realtor had arrived as well as the professional photographer.  We headed out to the movies and dinner, and they took some amazing pictures.  You may have seen them on facebook.  We couldn't believe our house looked like that.

And by 9 pm Friday, we were live...our house was listed.

Saturday the calls started coming, as Mark headed to work, Lyric went into her kennel, and the kids and I did what we could to get out of the house.  Not the easiest thing when it's 107 degrees outside.  We had 4 showings on Saturday.  We had 5 more on Sunday, and more trips around town.  By Sunday evening, I was exhausted.  And pretty ready to be done.

Sunday evening our realtor texted us.  We had an offer.  She set up an appointment Monday at 1 pm to present it to us.  By the time she arrived we had two offers, both pretty similar.  We countered both, and waited for a response.  By Tuesday we had our response.  One buyer had removed the offer, not due to the counter, but to some unforeseen circumstances.  So we were down to one offer, which we accepted, at full asking, but with some closing costs.  And with a contingency, which makes us a little nervous, but we know God's got it all.

So now we are in the inspection period.  Hopefully all will go smoothly.  Not much is within our control.

Over and over in the last few days we have heard, "God is really showing you he wants you to move."  And while I do believe that God has told us to move to St. Louis, I think the lightning speed of everything isn't necessarily confirmation of that.  More, I see it as an example of God's graciousness and love.  He could just as easily have allowed us to sweat out this moving thing, not sent us a buyer so quickly, and had another plan for things we needed to learn about trust during this move.  (He still may, if the buyer's house sale falls through).  Several people I know have been moved by God to a different location and not had their house sell right away.  It in no way was confirmation that God didn't want them to go.  Instead, he was saying "Trust me." 

We have indeed heard God's voice telling us the way we should go...the lightning speed of the home sale (so far) is just an added bonus.

"Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, 'This is the way; walk in it.'" (Isaiah 30:21)

Vision

6 years ago, I think to the week, I was having some vision problems.  I had gotten new contacts, but they didn't fit my eyes properly.  Intense pain and scratched corneas ensued, and a couple weeks without contacts...just when Mark and I were headed to the Virgin Islands for an anniversary trip (and to check another National Park off our list).  This is about as close as I've come to a natural disaster (unless of course you count the big LA earthquake, or hurricanes Rita or Ike)...and I was NOT happy.  I HATE my glasses.  The way I look in glasses, the way I see in glasses, the inconvenience of  glasses, everything.   The new contacts arrived the day after we left for our trip.  So we took the trip and I wore the glasses. (But took them off whenever we took photos).  And I had a great time, despite the big chip on my shoulder.

Less than a week after returning, I headed on my first mission trip to Africa, an eye care mission trip.  I decided with all the trouble I had just had, that I ought to wear the glasses to Africa too.  I certainly didn't want to experience any more of these difficulties in a foreign land, and since I'd had the contacts less than a week, I wasn't sure if my eye problem would occur again.  So, off I went to Africa, again with the glasses I hated. 

And God used the whole glasses thing as a huge teaching opportunity for me, a lesson I would not have experienced if I had been wearing my contacts.  Especially about being thankful for things that I just took for granted for 35 years, like my glasses.  And I also had a good laugh about the man who got glasses correcting his 20/200 vision (the same as mine...it means you cannot read the big E), and asked me, "should I wear these when I drive?"  Think about that the next time you go driving in Kenya.

Anyway, I was thinking about that experience again the last couple of days for a few reasons.  First, several friends posted on facebook recently about an object lesson at church.  I said I loved a good object lesson, until I was the object, and then I object.  And I remembered this particular lesson, in which I was the object, and I was objecting, until God opened my eyes to the lesson he had for me.  And then I was thankful.

Oddly enough, the object lesson my friends were posting about had to do with specks and logs in the eye...

The second reason I was thinking about it, is because I'm having eye issues again.  A week of irritation that I attributed to a very high pollen count, a couple days without wearing my problems, er  contacts, and I thought the problems were over.  But today while I was driving Brianna to school the problem came back and then some.  Finally decided to see the eye doc.  Anyway, the doc was out, so I had a sub (whom I loved, and wished he was my doctor).  He said there was no debris in my eye (no logs or specks), gave me some drops, and 2 options.  (Actually, they're not options, as I don't get to choose between the chicken and the beef).  In scenario A my eyes are irritated, and with the drops they'll be better when I go back to see my doctor tomorrow.  In scenario B it's something else, and it won't go away on it's own...whatever that means, which I'm not dwelling on for now. Either way, I see the doc tomorrow.  I'm hoping for scenario A, since I don't like the way "won't go away on it's own" sounds.

Meanwhile, I'm waiting to see how God is going to use this as an object lesson.  Besides, I've got these $600 glasses that I got in September to only wear at night when I took my contacts out...it's about time they see the light of day.