I am in mourning at Starbucks right now.

For the last year, I have used this quaint neighborhood coffee shop (let me pretend) as my unofficial office in Cypress while launching our second campus on Fry Road. From meeting with core team leaders, to crafting congregational communications, to dreaming of seeing Christ impact thousands, most of my time has been spent in one particular chair: Ratty Orange Chair. Let me tell you about Roc.

Roc was missing one armrest, kind of dirty looking, and would not make it past the threshold of our front door, but we spent many hours together. Roc gracefully enveloped the contours of my butt, and never complained about when I had eaten at Alicias the night before (although one time the manager had to say something to me… how am I supposed to know it was that loud? My headphones were in…). Roc got me in trouble with one crazy lady who didn’t think my feet should be on the coffee table, and Roc and I would pretend to be doing other things while really eavesdropping on other people. We easily logged over 150 hours together… good times.

Today Roc is gone.

In his place is some sassy little new orange chair… Lets call her Not Roc. And she has both armrests, is free of communicable diseases, and no mites or bugs are evident. And my butt hurts. She is all – “look how firm my cushion is” and “you need to sit up straighter when you type.” Plain and simple, things are different.

Its not really the chair though, its the change.

Change stinks, but when we are pursing God, change is exactly what moves us closer to who He is calling us to be. The last 7 days have been all about change for me…change in my health. change in my diet. change in my parenting. change in my husbandry. change in my friends. change in our staff. You name it, and just about any area of life in which I have been controlling, or comfortable, or disobedient is experiencing change.

So when change happens, I guess we can do a couple of things…

Most often we resist change. When Will The Barista told me that Roc was out by the dumpster, I dropped my backpack and went outside to go put him in my truck. Alas – to my dismay, and Kelly’s relief- He was gone. What I actually would have done with that chair, who knows really. Nothing good would have come from getting that chair back… I just wanted things to be how they were, and was grasping at whatever I could get that would take me there.

That feels like a pretty dangerous attitude to take when things are not how they were and are not feeling how they should, but its what we do. People and organizations tend to grasp at the past when the present isn’t what it should be. Most often though, God knows that what got us to where we are, will not take us to where we need to be, and reaching back keeps us from moving forward.

Proverbs 3:5-6 has been rattling in my head for the last week or so… I even taught from it last Sunday…

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight (NIV)

What we really need to do is trust. If we know we are pursuing Christ, then change can be embraced and managed. It will not feel right, might even be painful, but God promises to show us the way, right? What He has ahead for us is far greater than we could ever imagine- not to mention so much more than what was.

So as I twist and wiggle and search for the comfort that I once knew in ratty orange chair, I know that this discomfort is actually exactly what will make this chair eventually feel right. Farewell old friend, and hello pretty orange chair… I look forward to the things we will dream of, lives that will be changed, and Cole’s Crossing gossip that we will overhear.

Meet You on Fry Road

B