apartment

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Dramatic Change Is Coming Soon

We make many changes in life. Some changes are dramatic.

dramatic change is coming soon

The other day we helped move our son into a new apartment. At just under 30, he’s lived in more places than I’ve lived in my entire life, though we’ve both lived in the same number of cities.

This new place is not too far from his last, but it does have a few dramatic differences. 

His view is one of those dramatic differences. In his last apartment, his living room window faced an old factory building turned into offices. There was not much to see and the building wasn’t much to look at – just old brown bricks.

A view isn’t everything, but in an apartment you can’t step out into your backyard and move around. A view is pretty much all you have. In his old apartment, the other building was so close you couldn’t even see down to the ground.

The one thing it did have was quiet. I think the concrete structure made the building not only quiet from other apartments below, above, and to the sides, but it was also quiet from the outside. 

The new place? …

Well, the view is a killer. He’s 17 floors up and from his living room window he can see Lake Ontario and a vast array of tall buildings, short building, a park, and the Gardiner Express way. 

Oh, did you read that? That’s right, the highway that doesn’t sleep at night. 

That’s the other dramatic difference. This new place has a traffic hum that is constant, 24 hours a day. 

I’m sure that after a very short time it all becomes white background noice, but you can hear the traffic all the time. 

… I haven’t decided whether the dramatic view outweighs the dramatic noise, but I won’t be spending enough time there to determine which is better. 

I will say that I got a killer time lapse the other night of the expressway and all the lights from the surrounding buildings. 

Also, I can’t wait to look at the time lapse I took in the morning of the city waking up, going from night to daylight.

One thing I know is you pay a premium for being in the heart of the city. He’ll have to be very strategic about where everything is placed because it’s not a big apartment. 

When I was his age, I moved into my first apartment. It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a working wood fireplace in the living room. 

I wish I could remember how much the rent was back then. I think you could multiply my rent back then by 5 to reach what he pays now. 

But that view … wow, it is an amazing view! 

I always tell Lily she is living in a fish bowl when I come home in the evening and find the lights on in the living room and the curtains open. 

In Mike’s new place, with no curtains yet, he really is living in a fish bowl. He can see the world from his vantage point, but the whole world can see him.

Here’s the thing: Life brings changes, and some of those changes are dramatic. They may be dramatic in regards to space, health, relationships or scenery. But the most dramatic change one can make is going from death to life. That is what happens when one puts his or her faith in Jesus Christ. That person goes from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive. It is a dramatic change that doesn’t just last months, a year, or even a decade. This dramatic change lasts for all eternity. Be sure you’ve made that change.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What is the most dramatic change you’ve made this year? Leave your comments and questions below.

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What To Do When You’ve Misheard Something

When we don’t hear correctly, it can cause all kinds of complications or problems.

emily latilla

However, it’s pretty normal to have to say, “Pardon me, could you repeat that please?” You often hear people saying something like that … and the older we get, the more often we have to say it.

It doesn’t help that some people mumble or let their words trail off, making it hard to hear what they’re saying. It gets embarrassing to have to stop people and continually ask them, “What was that again?”

Often we just carry on and go with what we thought they said. We can make up pretty great stories when we do that!

Years ago on the TV show, Saturday Night Live, Gilda Radner played a character called Emily Litella. She was a senior citizen who had an opinion spot on their news segment. Emily’s problem was she didn’t hear very well.

For example, she gave her opinion, with all kinds of emotion, about violins on television. She got rather upset and irate that they were showing violins so late at night on the tube. She thought they should be shown earlier so children could watch and get a little culture.

After about a two minute rant, the show’s anchor interrupted Emily to tell her that the issue was “violence” on TV and not “violins”. Litella faced the audience, paused and responded with “Never mind”.

Not hearing can cause problems or it can have a funny result. … But what happens when you mishear God?

Recently, our daughter had planned to move to another apartment; plans seemed to be going well. She found a great place that looked like it would be perfect, and made the proper arrangements with her present landlord by letting him know she was moving.

Then things started to fall apart with the new place. There was a request by the new landlord that didn’t seem right. When Karlie said she couldn’t agree, the landlord didn’t respond or say “no” right away.

Karlie was still hopeful, until she was almost out of time at her present place. Then she was informed the new apartment was given to someone else.

She had asked God to provide a place for her, but now it looked like she wouldn’t have a place at all! Almost every other accommodation she checked was already rented.

Karlie had thought that she was following God’s leading, listening to what He wanted her to do.

She had two final possibilities. She decided that if they didn’t reply to her calls, texts and emails within three days, she would then go to her landlord and ask him if she could stay. She heard nothing.

When she went to her landlord, he told her that he had not had one single phone call regarding the apartment. Karlie asked him if she could sign a new lease and he even agreed to the shorter term that she wanted.

Here’s the thing: When we misread God or mishear Him, we can get ourselves going in the wrong direction. From there it’s easy to make more wrong decisions or draw wrong conclusions from what we think God might be saying. If we have misheard God, it’s important to be willing to take a step back, listen again and then follow through on what He makes clear.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question:   How have you misread or misheard God? Leave your comment below.