Right Side Up

Written on December 30, 2014.

A few days ago, I headed out to feed our horses. Honestly, I started out a little grumpy after being snug in my bed wrapped in a blanket, not the 20 degree temperature outside. I thought my coat was in the car. It wasn’t. When I got to the gate, I thought I would quickly jump out, unlock the gate and come back to the heat of the car. The lock was frozen shut. So I jumped the gate and walked to the barn, a little grumbly. The joyful sound of crackly ice beneath my feet did not retrieve me from Grumpyland. I fed the boys, gave them hay (all of this in my hoodie) and then moved on to break the ice in their water troughs.

With grandpa’s super duper ice pick I was armed and slightly dangerous. Not because of the ice pick, but my mood. The ice was quite thick and so it took a bit to get a hole going. When the hole was the size of a grapefruit I heard a loud plop. It took me a minute to realize the noise came from my phone sliding from my hoodie pocket and having such great aim, it went right through the hole to the bottom of the trough. I inhaled and plunged my arm into the icy water. Amazingly, as I pulled it out, my home screen was up on the picture, It was about the same time too.

Suddenly, I saw the truth and my condition. I was in the midst of one of my favorite things to do. Every time I go, I get to bask in the sunrise or sunset. I get to talk to my boys and see who they are more and more. I get to walk across the land I love. In that moment, I left Grumpyville and entered back into the Land of Joy.

My phone worked all the way home, as I listened to my favorite playlist on iTunes. A bit after arriving home, it stopped working, so I surrounded it by a healthy dose of oatmeal. I knew at any moment, Pappa could resurrect it. But even greater I knew, was His desire to resurrect that part of my heart that had forgotten all He had already laid out for me in that day and had the invitation to receive moment by moment, bite by bite. Yesterday, I took my phone to the Apple Store. The appointment site said “If you dropped you phone in liquid, you can forget it” in a much nicer way of course. Pappa said go, so joyfully we went.

The tech came out and said he had good news and bad news, which did I want first. I said “bad” so the grief could give way to joy, lol. The bad news was that he was going to have to replace my phone. The good was that he was going to do it for free because my phone showed no signs of water damage. Just like my heart, no damage from the decision I made, just the beauty of my choice to return to what I was created for – doing all things in joy!

One morning, I woke up on the wrong side. I wish I could finish that with “of the bed.” But the truth is, I woke up on the wrong side of who He has always been and who I was created to become. Returned, redeemed and restored.