A New Thing

The sun is sleeping below the horizon behind our house and we are hovering in that nether-world of hazey blue and calm has descended finally, again. And it is in this space that I step outside and breathe. Because I need this time. The stretching of legs and the deep inhale of humid Houston air. I need to see the sky for the third time today because computer screens just can't give me this. They can't bring me back down to earth and slow me down and remind me how very small I am and yet how very beautiful my God is in the details. And it is true- as it says in the Quotidian Mysteries, that rich thought comes in the monotonous swinging of arms and legs on the daily walk. And it is in these (all too rare) moments that I stop processing information at the speed of light (or at the speed of my wireless connection) and I stop caring who had kids or got married or split up and I just breathe. The stars pop out one by one and the moon takes the place of the sun and it is all quiet here.

The Gibson Family Goes to Ikea

This is Hank again, Kelsey's husband.  I write a little on her blog when I get inspired every now and again.  Apparently, a Swedish furniture store inspires me greatly.

We went to Ikea on Saturday!

There are some things the greeters at the front should warn you about before you actually ascend the escalator into the heart of the store.  Things like, have you brought food and water?  Have you stretched properly?  Are you in shape enough to walk 4 miles?  Do you have heart problems?  Do you suffer from shopping overload?

Unfortunately, the greeters didn't convey these very important questions to us. 

Now, I had been to Ikea twice in my life before and to their website several times.  They have really cool, really affordable stuff.  I like Ikea stuff.  The two times I'd gone before, once with a friend to just walk through the store and get the Ikea experience, not to shop, and the other time with my two male apartmentmates to buy a desk and desk chairs, we'd been inside the Swedish Village (aka, Ikea) for, at most, an hour and a half.  No biggie right?

Apparently, three years causes the enormity of the store to fade away. 

I met Kelsey and her sister there at approximately 3:30 in the afternoon to browse around and maybe buy some stuff for the house.  We didn't really have a list of things we needed, we just wanted to look around some.  Well, I quickly remembered, you don't really just look around Ikea, then head out. 



Taken from this blog

They are really smart marketers, these Ikea folks.  They set all their furniture (and I mean all!) out in little room setups and apartment setups so people can see what they look like.  Then, they weave a maze through the store so you have to, quite literally, walk by everything before you can get out. 

Ikea's furniture is really snazzy, though, so for the first hour, I was enthralled.  Wouldn't this look great?  Oh, that is really cool!  Sweet, check out that clothes hamper!  They sell fridges?  Woah. 

After an hour and a half, I was starting to get a little weary.  The beds were beckoning to me for a nap.  Again, the Ikea people are smart though.  They put a restaurant at the halfway point!  What better way to get some energy, right?  We piled some food on our plates, well, dessert actually, chowed down, then set off with a new fervor in our hearts!

The fervor lasted until about 30 feet from the bottom of the stairs that led down from the restaurant.  At this point, it had been two hours.  My eyes had begun to glaze over.  The girls feet were turning to mush (they had already been to the zoo that day).  All the Swedish names of everything were starting to jumble together into one Swedish mass. 

Kelsey's sister had gone up ahead of us while we lingered around the picture frames.  For some reason, the frames began to move, twist, and take a new shape.  They formed hands that wanted to grab me and drag me into the picture.  Had there been some Swedish drug in my dark chocolate bar? 

Oh, wait, that was just a heart pillow with arms.  Carry on.

By the time we got to the checkout with our new house items (which were awesome by the way), we had hiked (yes, I do use that word on purpose) through the small Swedish city for over 3 hours.  Over 3 hours!  One store!  Madness, I say. 

Words for the wise when shopping at Ikea.
1.  Bring provisions
2.  Wear comfy shoes
3.  Don't bring small children (they'll get bored quicker than you and get into everything.  Trust me, we saw many examples)
4.  Don't have evening plans
5.  Finally, make sure you bring a strong husband along to carry the wife's purse

Finally, some serious Ikea advice:  shop online, pick out what you want first, then go to the store.  It'll save a ton of time!

Happy shopping!

In this place, I am weary yet rejoicing

It has been one of those days where I feel again that in this place, before these students, I feel His pleasure. He has given me high and lofty goals and I am trusting him with those, but in this classroom before my students from 7 or 8 different countries, it is pure joy.

   I listened to an interview done by Bethel Church recently. Two Olympic runners have started going to that church and attending the school of ministry. Can you imagine- being a professional runner. That career alone is proof that God made us all unique and different!!
 
   And Sarah Hall, who runs steeplechases, talked about how she knew that God wanted her to run. And she talked about her passion for justice, for the poor and how that felt so much more important. And yet God said, run. Run because I can do more through you running that by yourself-with just your two hands on the mission field. And it shook me a bit. Because you know I have struggled with my identity and finding it in a holy and high calling. And it has been a journey finding it in Jesus. I am still on the road and it is a long pilgrimage with new friends and unexpected showers and dusty roads that remind me where I came from but it is beautiful and new and it feels right.

   Standing before those students today, the ones that so intimidated me only a week ago, I feel His Pleasure. It is coursing through me and I feel 'light as a butterfly' and I know His Joy must be shining because I can hardly keep it in. I feel like bursting.

And it is in these moments that I am thankful for the trials that have taught me to speak through against the lies. To catch the lies at their early stages and see their destructive end. I don't catch them all and I, again, am still on this journey, but it is a bit of beauty I am finding in the broken places. It is restoration and redemption for the lies that have rocked our little boat. So we are learning and I am thankful. For in those moments, when Truth has scattered lies and I am lifted up to see His great tapestry of love and I catch just a glimpse of the beauty that he is weaving, I am transfixed. Transformed. Renewed. And then I am back to where I can only see the knotted underside of that tapestry but it is enough. Enough to press on, with tired feet, and to remember that these feet are beautiful. That me with my lack of grammar skills, can teach English and bond with students and proclaim His Love. It is more than Enough.