Temporal Happiness: Claiming Your Blessings Or…the Ballad of the Green Rug and KVI Beach Toys

The miles could not click off fast enough for me to get home. Hours before I had stopped in West Seattle to pick up my second Craigslist treasure of the week.

Everyone once in a while I have to rail against the constrictions of my life, mostly financial and just celebrate hope and promise.

Such was my search for area rugs to make my rental abode reflect my values, style and tastes. My budget was $10.

BINGO…just days before I had scored the exact rug color and size I wanted for under the dining table. As I arrived to pick it up, the car of the rug owners was idling to take them to the airport as they began their move across the country.

The husband attested to the condition of the dining rug AND….bonus babe…the runner rug that would cover a previous tenants’ puppy stains in the hall. Oh JOY! Oh Spirit lifter…Such visual improvements would boost my sticktoitiveness and increased commitment to turning dreams into goals.

But wait… the husband says to me , "Would you be interested in a vacuum cleaner? I just put a one year old Bissel by the dumpster and that just kills me." I shrug and say, "Why not?" Then the wife exits from the apartment heading to me with a white plastic box. "Could you use a Britta countertop filter unit?".

"I live on Vashon . We can ALWAYS use water filters!", I laughed.

So…$10 later, I’m headed home with two new rugs, an almost new vacuum cleaner, and a water filter. I thought back fifteen years ago when I was living in the apartments uptown and had told someone who wanted to help that what I really needed was a vacuum cleaner. They told me I shouldn’t ask for such silly things when they wanted to really help.

I’ve always told everyone God would return two and half times what was stolen from me. Yah sure, youbetcha true.

After the rugs were in place, I thought I would cruise through Craigslist to continue the search for a living room area rug. With Craigslist one has to be very very careful and patient. It takes time so you have to search frequently so you’re not just getting a bargain, you are getting a bargain you actually want.

Double BINGO!! Just a day later there was the very rug I had hoped and longed for. For…$10.

Arriving at the door in West Seattle, the owner asks if I will do a favour for her. She brings two toy horses and explains they will not have time to return them to KVI before they move to Hawaii.

Soon, I was hurrying back to the Island with my precious rug, some free houseplants they threw in, and a toy Orca and Hooked Nosed Salmon her kids had swapped out so they could keep the horses they had grown to love.

Rug in place, there was peace in my heart for the future.

See…just a week ago I had been playing Bridge during the annual Bridgefest I participate in at Family Camp and received an email telling me my client load was going to be exactly the way I wanted it with the families I most desired and I would have three full days to write and get my freelance teaching career up and running at long last.

"My life just got perfect!" I kept explaining to them. I was so relieved.

Now I have to exegete ‘perfect’ for you. The word ‘perfect’ that I use is the Greek ‘telios’. It doesn’t mean ‘without flaw’ , it means ‘complete’. It is my favorite word in the Bible. It’s my favorite word in the whole of language.

When life is complete, there is peace, patience, kindness, goodness, Love, and self control in your life. All those are within the spectrum of your behavior and it is a very good way to live. I have never wanted anything more than to be completed by God’s love.

"Stop saying that or something will happen!" my good friend who loves me said.

"If it does, I’m just going to say ‘Praise Jesus!!" I smiled back.

But sure enough, the following week, somebody threatened me with legal action because of their own behavior, my daughter discovered two lumps where lumps are not supposed to be, and a neighbor died and one of my cats was missing.

Thinking back I decided to make it more than a jovial response and kept saying, "Praise , praise, praise."

A new understanding came into my heart. I decided something good does not have to be followed by something bad. You can have good after good after good.

I stood my ground and the person backed down from the threat of legal action, the lumps turned out to be cysts, and the cat was mistakenly taken to the VIPP shelter and so ended up being treated for the horrible fleas the neighboring cats continually passed on to him.

I looked at my pretty rug and decided I would see how it felt to me spiritually to take a new direction in my life. I decided to explore the possibility that God wanted to bless me with earthly blessings time after time after time.

Now if you are a member of the mainline denominations you know this is a ‘no no’. It’s called health and wealth theology. But I think the people who speak against it have jobs, spouses and houses they own.

For me, I can tell you about God’s mercies and Grace, and unconditional love no matter what the circumstances. But I punted on temporal blessings.

I could not ignore, however, the triple blessing from my $10 and the carefully woven tale of carrying back to the Island the exact rug, and new healthy houseplants that I also had wanted to have but couldn’t justify buying AND completing the story of another family’s happy adventure day to visit KVI.

I’m going to give it a year. From now until next August, I’m going to focus on temporal happiness as much as I do transcendent Joy. Each time, no matter what I will say , "Praise You!" and believe that it’s OK to find a $10 rug and be blessed thrice over.

I’ll keep you posted. For now, I’m going to enjoy vacuuming….a lot!

Love
Deborah