Where the Magic Happens

As the words came out of my mouth, I realized that I’d had a serious lapse in judgment.  Chalk it up to a lack of sleep, I told myself.  I’d just come off a week of work travel followed by a speaking engagement, and here I was inviting a group of ladies to stop by my house. 

As I drove toward my house, I worked out a solution.   If I went through the garage and came out the front door to let them in, I could pick up a lot of clutter as I made my way through the house.  Would it seem like I was leaving them on the front porch forever if I grabbed an armful of stuff, ran down the hall, stuffed it all into the closet, and then dashed to the front door to unlock it for them?  It was worth a try.  If I scooted right into my garage and sprinted through the house, I might pull it off. 

A very short time later I was swinging the front door open to my guests, “Come in, come in.  Please don’t mind the mess.”  Secretly I was thinking, I did pretty well.  Really doesn’t look that bad for having been gone all week, and I got a lot of stuff in the “clean” sweep.

Graciously my friends admired my living room and complimented my choice of paint color.  We made our way past the kitchen, dining room, and bathroom and on to the back of the house.  “What sweet bedrooms,” one of them said as we peeked into my bedroom and the guest room. 

Then my eyes turned to the office.  Horrors!  Was that laundry slung onto the back of my office chair?  My office had never been a showpiece, that’s for sure, but suddenly I saw it in all of its non-glory.  My desk was a tv tray, exercise equipment was strewn around the floor beside my “desk,” and now laundry was drying on the back of the chair.

“So this is where all the magic happens?” I could see a twinkle in my friend Heidi’s eye.  Somehow she’d set me at ease.  It was almost as if she’d said, Wow, if you can write under these circumstances, you can write anywhere.

“It’s kind of a temporary set-up,” I said apologetically.  “I’m hoping to get a real desk soon.”

A few weeks later, I did get a real desk, and oh how I love it.  I love propping my arms on the edge of my lovely new desk knowing that the entire contraption isn’t going to collapse, and I love being able to lay my books out beside me while I study and write.  Everything seems a little easier with my new desk.

At the same time, I can’t help but remember what I’d told my friends about my old desk, “It’s kind of a temporary set-up.”  Everything here on this earth is temporary, and we’re warned against putting too much stock in our nice things.  “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth…but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven…for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19 -21

I do love my nice earthly things – desk included, but oh how I want my heart to reflect those things that matter for eternity.

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