Teach me, Show me

I prayed a prayer a couple of weekends ago while laying on an air mattress in Chicago.

“Lord…teach me something I haven’t been learning, something You want me to get but I’m turning from. Show me where You want me to grow. Teach me. Tell me.”

The next day I left Chicago and as I was speeding toward to Lansing, I checked my voicemail. It was Krissie.

“Holly, one of the couches won’t fit down the stairs. It’s sitting in the middle of the living room. I’m really sorry. Not sure what you want to do…get a storage locker…I don’t know. Talk to you soon. Bye.”

My stomach dropped. Wonderful. I have had this furniture set since probably 1999, sold to me by someone close. The furniture is still nice, though getting a little drab from all of my moves. It has survived 3 moves locally and then in Joey’s upstairs for a year. It has been sitting in my neighbor’s basement since last August. I always had the intention of moving it into the condo basement but there wasn’t any urgency…until last Wednesday when Krissie said, “we need to move your furniture out of Jimmy’s basement this weekend.”
“I won’t be here.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
“Sorry…thanks.”

I prayed, “please, just help me figure this one out, God. It isn’t a huge deal, I know but still….”

My cell phone rang. It was Andy. I explained the situation. He said, “well, you know Russ has a storage unit in Madison Heights, right?”
“Um, no.”
"Yeah, he does but now that I think about it, I think its pretty full.”
“Of course it is,” I sighed.

I arrived to my dad’s to pick up my laptop.
“How was your trip?”
“Fun. Do you want a new couch?”
“No.”
“Ok.”
Then my step-mom said a bunch of stuff about letting go of things and to just sell it but really, I didn’t want to sell it. I got home late Sunday night and my stomach sank further. There was my couch in the middle of the living room. I went to work, bumming a bit, and talked to Dana about the situation. Getting a storage unit for just a couch was out of the question. I could sell it but if I buy a condo in a year or two, I don’t want to worry about getting furniture again. I still like the set and got it for such a good price. Even if I do sell it though, I have to figure out how long it will take and blah, blah, blah…. Dana said she might be able to store it in her basement but I didn’t want to burden her. What I really wanted to do was call him. But no. No, no, no. I wasn’t going to always rely on someone else to solve my little issues.

That night, I asked Krissie for time to figure out what I was going to do. She hesitated but said the couch could stay for a couple of weeks. I felt so bad. I knew she didn’t want it in the living room anymore but I just wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I went up to my bedroom to lay down and think. I checked my cell phone. There was a message from Russ. No way. He was inviting me to a bar-b-que. No way! I called him back and we discussed his invite. Then, taking a deep breath, I said,
“Soooo….Russ….you have a storage unit, right?”
“Yup, I sure do. Why? What do you have?”
“A couch. We tried to move into the basement but it won’t fit down the stairs….”
“Sure! No problem! I’ve got a lot of room. When do you want to move it in?”

As I hung up the phone, I smiled. I had prayed a prayer for God to teach me something, something I wasn’t learning, not getting. Could this lesson be that I can solve my own problems without always turning and running toward...? Is the lesson that my friends love me and I really can turn to them?

Last night, Krissie, Bennie and I loaded the couch into Jimmy’s F-150 and I drove to Russ’ house to get him. We met Ryan at the storage facility and my two friends helped me. They hugged me and smiled at me. They weren’t put out. They were happy to help. I kept thanking them over and over but they wouldn’t hear it. “No problem” was what they said. I felt strong. I felt more confidence in myself. I felt the love of my friends, the ones God placed in my life 8 years ago.

Problem solved for now, God. Waiting for the next lesson….