I’m deliberately finding joy for forty days. To start from day one, click here.
The chair once sat in the living room of my grandparents. It’s covered in the fabric above, shaped like a horseshoe, low to the ground, with three stout legs. As children, my brother and I took turns spinning in it until we tumbled, dizzy, to the ground.
The chair quietly disappeared and I didn’t think much of it until the last time I visited my grandfather. And there, in the garage, it sat. I asked about it and learned he planned to put it in a garage sale.
I protested and my parents hauled it all the way from Texas to my home the next time they came to see me (my grandpa still says I owe him $40 with a twinkle in his eyes).
Now it sits in the corner of our bedroom. It’s the first thing I see when I wake up in the morning. I look at it and I think of childhood, family, the places my heart calls home no matter where I am.
My Grandpa says the chair is from the sixties or so and that he and my grandma bought it from a couple at their church. It’s seen a lot of life, that chair.
Lately I’ve been curling up in it for a few moments before I go to work. I pray, quietly, and run my fingers along the fabric.
I think about how everything feels so urgent to us. And then I think about how time smooths things out and living faithfully in little ways adds up to a lot when it’s all said and done.
Sometimes I close my eyes and feel the arms of the chair around me. Words of those who have sat there too run through my mind. I remember again there is time—enough for living, loving, fulfilling God’s purposes.
Then peace settles somewhere deep inside, joy calls my name and I’m ready to face the day…ready to stand.
Would you like to join me in the Joy challenge? Today just share a place where you feel joy. I’m have random giveaways for people who comment or subscribe during the forty days I write about joy. And you never know when it could be you…
