“It’s kind of weird and funny how a piece of plastic that I probably bought for a dollar many, many years ago and decided to hang from my ceiling could give me insight into my current position in the timeline of my life. Something that came into my life so many years ago was used by the Holy Spirit to teach me something today. God certainly does work in mysterious ways.”

You see, there’s this decoration I have hanging from my ceiling in my room. It’s not new. In fact, it’s been there for quite some time. I’ve known it was there. Well, I put it there. And many times I have bumped my head or my arm or something on it. But for the first time, well ever, I stopped and looked at it. I mean I really looked at it. I noticed it wasn’t moving. Like at all. It was just hanging there.

If I had to quickly describe it: It’s supposed to move. That’s kind of its purpose, to hang from the ceiling and move, to be something interesting to see when you come in the room. But it’s not. It’s not moving and for the most part, it isn’t all that interesting to see.

I started thinking about it. I mean really thinking about it, about why it wasn’t moving and how it should be moving, as that is its purpose. I realized that it’s not spinning because the environment is wrong. The way it operates is that there needs to be a breeze so that it can spin. But its hanging in my room. There isn’t a breeze in my room so the environment is all wrong for this spinning (or shall I say not spinning) ornament. It has never done what it’s supposed to do because for so many years it has been hanging in the wrong place. But what is the right place? Maybe outside, in the elements. It needs to be blown in the wind or at least in a stronger AC current. But as long as it remains hanging here in my room, where it has been since the day I bought it, it won’t spin, it won’t do what it’s supposed to.

In school I remember we learned something about potential energy. It’s the energy inside that the object has the potential to use. Potential energy isn’t moving energy, it’s just stored energy. My hanging decoration is full of that potential energy. And it can’t use that energy while it hangs in the comfort of where it has always been.

As my pastor would say, come in close for a minute. I think the Holy Spirit is trying to say something. That decoration, that piece of plastic that has been hanging from my ceiling for years…that decoration is me. I am hanging there not moving, holding in all my potential energy. But why? Why have I not been doing what I was purposed to do? Because I have not been able to. Not because God hasn’t given me the power. My decoration is fully capable of spinning as it should. It just can’t because of where it is, and where it has been for so long. In the same way, I too am capable of fulfilling my purpose (and very much would fulfill it), but I can’t because of where I am and where I have been for so long. I’ve been sitting where I have always been and this place has become a comfort to me. And like my decoration, I have not moved. I haven’t been spinning. I have been here, frozen. And actually, that has become the expectation of me. When I look up at my frozen decoration, I am not surprised. It is sitting there as I have expected it too. For years, I have looked up and saw it there, not moving. A few times, I have walked over and gave it a bit of a spin myself, so that it could do what it was designed to do, only to watch it return to its frozen state. Because no matter how many times I glance at it, no matter how many times I give it a spin, it always returns to an unmoving position, always. This never surprised me. As I stare at it now, it looks more like a painting on the ceiling than an object that can actually move.

So what am I to do in order to allow it to do what it should? I should change its environment. While even I have become accustomed to having it hang here in my room, nothing will change in its behavior while it is hanging here. It needs to be in a new environment, an environment that gives it a better chance to fulfill its purpose. Now I don’t know if it is I or God who will be changing my environment, but either way I must be ready for the change. This comfortable spot I have been so accustomed to sitting in, is not helping me do what I am supposed to do. And for too long I have sat here, so long that I have always expected to find myself here. But my environment must change if I hope to do what I was made for.

This new environment, I have never experienced it before. Everything will feel new, and probable scary. But I should be happy, excited even, because after years of being where it was comfortable but not good for me, I will finally be in a place where I can use my potential energy. I can do what I was created to do.  And that should be the most exciting thing ever.

I think first, I have to prepare my mind and my heart. In a way, staring at this decoration suspending from my ceiling has begun to prepare my mind for the change that is to come. Now I must focus on the preparation of my heart. In my head, this change seems good and like something I should anticipate with excitement. But my heart is still timid, as I would expect it to be. It’s a moment when my mind knows what is best for me while my emotions and feelings are leaning on fear and doubt. However, I have been told that right thinking will lead to right feeling. So this time, I am going to take a step of faith with my right thinking and wait eagerly for my feelings to catch up.

The ornament does something beautiful when it moves. I think I, too, will do something beautiful when I begin to move.

K.J. 01/02/2016