Chair Snafu

Life is a journey, not a home; a road, not a city of habitation; and the enjoyments and blessings we have are but little inns on the roadside of life, where we may be refreshed for a moment, that we may with new strength press on to the end - to the rest that remaineth for the people of God.  Horatius Bonar

Once you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life's problems fall into place of their own accord.  J.I. Packer

I had a chair snafu this week at work.  In other words, an out of control situation with my desk chair.  I have one of those chairs that has a lever that raises and lowers the chair.  I started to notice this week that when I would get to the office and sit down my knees would be above the seat of my chair.  I thought the cleaning people might be lowering my chair so the arms would fit under the desk.  

One of my bosses was in town this week and he normally will come into my office and sit in a chair across from my desk and dictate letters to me.  My computer screen is in the middle of my desk and the chair is directly across from my screen so I can normally make eye contact with him when he is dictating to me. 

I started to notice that I would gradually get lower and lower until I couldn’t see him over my monitor.  It wasn’t like all of a sudden I was dropped to the floor.  It was just a gradual lowering.  I just kept hoping that my boss wouldn’t notice.  When I first began to notice it I thought I just hadn’t locked the chair in place.  There used to be a skit many years ago on a show called Laugh-In where Lily Tomlin played a little girl sitting in this huge rocking chair.  I felt exactly like that sitting in my chair, except I felt like a giant sitting in a too small chair.  When my chair is lowered my knees are above my waist and I have to reach up to touch my desk.  I felt like my chair was a periscope slowly being lowered into the ocean.   

So all week I fiddled with my chair and tightened all the knobs under it to no avail.  I would sit down and it would gradually lower toward the floor. I ran scenarios through my head about how I could shore up my chair to keep it from lowering itself.  It did this all week until yesterday.  All of a sudden it just stopped. 

I started thinking as usual about what God might be trying to teach me.  When your eyes and ears are always open to hear His voice you start thinking like that all the time.  Everything that happens in your day becomes a focus for what I call “God Mindedness”. So maybe it could be that I am putting myself above God in some area of my life so maybe I need to look into that.  Maybe I am not depending on God enough and he is trying to get me to focus my attention on Him.  I still don’t think I know the answer but it made me focus my attention back on Him. 

If you think about it, God doesn’t make it easy to figure Him out.  Why is that?  Maybe because we are fickle and if it was too easy we would become bored and move away from Him.  He also doesn’t always give us the answer because the search for the answer is the most important part of the journey.  Sometimes the search reveals the hidden treasure of wisdom that He intended all along.

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, as my chair went up and down this week my thoughts turned to You.  It has been a gradual process, but over the past few years my focus seems to stay more and more on You and what you are trying to teach me in my daily life. You are with me wherever I go and all I have to do is turn to You to be in Your presence.

Scripture: Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”  Joshua 1:7-9