Up, up, and, uh.....down.

“LET’S DO IT!”

You know that moment in a movie where someone makes a daring statement and then there’s this long moment where you know that the writer of this film planned on building up this incredible hype that either something awesome or disastrous is going to happen after that frozen millisecond?

That happened.

Then the ceiling fell on top of me.

The whole ceiling.

All of the tiles.

All of the things.

Boards.

Dust.

Spiders.

Asbestos.

My husband and I had been discussing caving in (ironically) and getting a large flat screen TV. After looking desperately for a projector set-up that would have the mounting ability in our basement (DESPITE THE STRANGE LAYOUT OF THE CEILING, HARDY HAR HAR) we decided that not only would it be cheaper, but also a lot less stress to purchase instead a glorious Smart TV, because people who do that are just that: SMART.

When I say we decided, I don’t mean at the same time.

As usual my husband responded with a large purchase with his familiar “THE TRIBE HAS SPOKEN LET US DO THIS THING WHILST HENCE THE LORD HAS BLEST US THIS THINE CHILDREN OF THE KINGDOM” while I sat in the background with eighteen calculators, our W-2’s, the Wall Street Journal, and a bowl of cereal (cereal is not relevant here, but you need to understand how I work) to make sure everything in the budget lined up A-ok.

After weeks, nay, MONTHS of mulling over numbers, discussing pros, cons, benefits, repercussions, endless Netflix and Hulu Plus possibilities, I came to the epiphanous conclusion that if the time to do it was near, then the time to do it was NOW. This moment happened right before that magical millisecond, and to be even more detailed, the moment happened as I had a full plate of baked fajitas and a glass of tea and had just plopped down on the couch in our basement.

“LET’S DO IT!”

There’s always a creak. A creak happens in films, books, life-changing moments when everything you love, the foundation of the building in which you sit/stand, is about to self-annihilate.

<CREAK>

I had barely that millisecond to look up as 35 12x12 inch tiles came crashing from the ceiling and on my head.

It was sad that the moment following was me wondering how much drywall I could consume with my fajitas that didn’t require a hospitalization.

“You ok?” -My husband, so sweet, calls from upstairs.

“Oh yes….though the Lord has spoken my dear.”

It took a few hours of my husband drilling those tiles back into our ceiling fixtures while convincing me that this was not a sign from our dear Lord and Saviour that we should not get a television because Jesus doesn’t do that and Jesus probably likes video streaming and I need to not make every instance such as this spiritual because the decision to trot to Wal-Mart or Best Buy for our next electronic escapade is not priority under the hand of our Father.

It was hard for me to separate. I always try to look for a sign. A huge, ceiling explosion kind of sign for the Lord to tell me what is a good idea and what is a bad idea. If I can blame it on God anyway, then I really haven’t made a good or bad decision either way, right? Responsibility is off of me, what could be better?

That’s unfair, expecting God to come through the clouds and point us in the direction of our next Amazon purchase, instead of assuming rightfully that we were given the discernment and critical thinking we need for our day to day decisions…..or do we just not want that responsibility?

The Lord guides our paths, speaks to us in ways we don’t expect, but don’t blame Him for your lack of discernment or for your forgetfulness that sometimes He is just a still, small voice.

He doesn’t always fall through the ceiling, and we shouldn’t expect Him too.