Comfortable? No Thanks

Unfortunately we were unable to get a letter out with our Christmas cards this year to update everyone on the crazy events in our life the past year.  Like I mentioned in the last blog post (this is Brian), there has been quite a bit of change over the past 12 months, and we just added another twist to it all this past week.  I figured now was a good time to let you all know what the Grigsby family has been up to over the past year.

Towards the beginning of 2012, I began praying continually for God to do whatever necessary, take from me whatever He needed, to make me and us more dependent on Him...to be solely reliant upon Christ in all things.  I felt there were things (idols and gods) that were keeping us from leaning on Him and gazing upon the cross daily.  This was single handily the scariest prayer I've ever made.  I was scared to the point of apologizing in advance to Linds because I was scared of what He might take from us.  At the time, I didn't know what was keeping me from being completely reliant on Him, but I knew it was something.  I wanted Him to reveal that to me, no matter how much it could potentially hurt.  I was scared about what He might take that I held dear...my wife?  my daughter?  my job?  my health?  These were all things I cherished dearly, but also things that I thought I was trying to use to glorify Him.  What if these were the very things that were keeping me from a deeper intimacy with my Creator?  I just didn't know.

So over the past 12 months, God has revealed at least some answers.  One of my (and our) biggest idols is being comfortable.  You would think, "being comfortable?  there is nothing wrong with trying to achieve this".  I mean this was really our family goal, the American Dream, what we desired.  To be comfortable and "settled" in our home, to be comfortable with our finances, to be comfortable in our church, and to be comfortable in our careers...these were all things that we were striving for and seemed to be the good things to achieve for our family.  But this has been altered over the past year and has really transformed our lives.  Let me explain a little more.

In the past year, there have been a few changes and transitions in our family.  First off, we loved our home, our church, and were enjoying our jobs in the Columbus area, but when an opportunity came up for us to move back "home", we decided to uproot everything and go in a leap of faith.  For the sake of this blog I won't go into all of the details of the decisions, but they were not easy ones!  Ultimately, I took a job in Chillicothe, Lindsay quit her career (which she won't tell you, but was becoming VERY successful at) to be a full time mom, and we sold our house and moved back home (Frankfort).  We first moved in with my dad and step-mom while we tried to patiently look for a new house.  After 6 months of living there, we decided that we were just going to rent for a while, so we found a rental house to move into.  After working for a couple weeks to fix up the house and clean it, we moved in.  But we ran into some more issues with the house and ended up having to move out and found a condo that we could move into.  So we moved again.  So all in all, 4 "homes" in the past year....FOUR!  (my deepest apologies and love to my brother Chris, because he was my biggest help in EVERY move).  So we are currently living in "home" #4 and still have not been able to get "comfortable".

The biggest recent news is that I have also just decided to leave the company that brought us back.  Yes, after only just 10 months.  I have decided to take a career opportunity with Accurate Heating & Cooling in Chillicothe as a sales engineer.  So chalk this up as company #3 in the past 12 months....THREE!  So again, not exactly getting "comfortable" with work quite yet. 

Now obviously through all of these transitions, our finances have been ever changing.  Linds and I have always taken A LOT of pride in our budget.  Not that we took a lot of pride in the amount of money we had, but just the ability to organize, control, and plan our budget.  With Linds leaving her career and my job changes and our living changes, our budget has been completely out of whack!  We've been unable to really get a hold of it and control our money b/c it has been changing so much.  So unable to get "comfortable" with it.  Now through all of this change, we have been extremely blessed to have an income to pay bills and all of that.  We also, as a team, became very determined to get rid of all of our debt (Dave Ramsey shout out here) and become MUCH more disciplined with our money.  As of January 2013, we are completely debt free.  No more car loans or student loans, and we sold our house, so no mortgage.  Talk about a blessing; we were convicted and just felt very strongly about eliminating our debt so that we could better utilize God's money for ways in which He wants it to be used, rather than us being slave to the lender (Proverbs 22:7).

So all of this said, there have been so many great blessings over the past year to say the least.  But is has also been extremely tough and testing.  God has changed our plans so much and so quickly that we have not been able to get a feeling of being comfortable.  We didn't realize it before, but we were taking so much pride and putting so much energy into being comfortable and striving for that, that it was really becoming an idol.  With all of the change, we have had countless situations where we have had to cling to the cross and have been constantly reminded that the true comfort and constant we have is God's grace and love.  It is never changing, never ending, and the single thing that our family can count on each and every day, and through each and every circumstance.  So for our family, being comfortable...no thanks!  Because when we become comfortable, we begin feeling self righteous and stop relying on God's love and grace in every aspect of our lives.  So keep bringing on the change and we will find joy in the lack of "comfort", because we will  find ourselves clinging to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Praise God for answering our prayer.  Praise God for his never failing constant love.  Praise God for bringing us to our knees because every idol and god we hold on to fails us.  And praise God for when we look up from our knees, we are at the foot of the cross!

ps.  for the many of you that have been loving on us and serving us through all of these transitions, we love you all and pray that we are able to reflect Christ's image to you as well.

The LOT - Desk Project

This is my first time writing (Brian), so be patient with me :)

We know it has been an extremely long time since you have been given an update on what has been happening in the exciting lives of the Grigsby family.  You must have thought that since the "big run" was over, there was nothing else to talk about.  Well, that could not be further from the truth!  We have actually had SO much going on that we haven't had a chance to update you all, which we greatly apologize for.  We even meant to send out letters along with our Christmas cards, but unfortunately fell short there as well.  So watch for an upcoming blog post to give you an update on our lives and how God has been working and moving in our family.  But that will be a lengthy post and is not the intent of this one.

One of the things I (Brian) have been messing around with is furniture projects.  I LOVE attaining old pieces of furniture and restoring them or re-purposing them.  I have a desire to take old "throw away" pieces and give them new life, new purpose, and a new home.  This is simply a hobby I have started working towards.  

I am calling this venture "The LOT".  This stems from the idea of "the least of these", typically taken from Matthew 25:34-40.

³⁴ “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶ I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

So I often feel that these rejected, worn out, broken down pieces of furniture can resemble God's people in so many different ways.  As a Christ follower, as a child of God, and as a brother in Christ, we are called to love and serve each other in our brokenness.  We are called to pick each other up, help restore the broken pieces and maybe even help guide each other to new life in Christ.  

My hope is that over some time, this hobby can turn into a small opportunity to take furniture, restore it, and then sell it.  With any money that can be made, we can then utilize it to create even more opportunities to literally go out and give, serve, and love on people in our community.  That is our vision, and this was just the first project that has a home in our own home.

This project was done for Lindsay so that she would have a work space to do what God is calling her to do.  She has been sewing and selling all kinds of custom baby items on her Etsy shop, 

Simple Little Lindsay, and needs more space and organization.  She also needed a work space for her Tax and Bookkeeping services, Lindsay A Grigsby Small Business Bookkeeping and Tax Services.

The desk was made out of 2 wooden pallets, 4x4 legs, trimmed with 1x6 boards, and topped with 1/4" glass.  The towers were ones we had built several years ago but were no longer using.  We simply painted and distressed them.  Other features on the desk include 2 old white windows as dry erase surfaces, old wooden shutters purchased at an auction as picture holders, piece of old barn wood as a shelf, fabric and cork board to pin notes, and mason jars as organizers.  Inspired by the pieces themselves and many pinterest posts!