I Got Hooked by a Chair
Dear Friends,
Before I move on from the baby era, may I tell you what I learned from a chair? If you are simple (which I am), then everything can teach you.
Don’t you love chairs? It’s where you rest, read, visit, and sometimes sleep. But even chairs can get out of hand.
I borrowed something from my son, Stephen, who clarified the meaning of “chairs” for me:
God expressed Himself in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He also made man in three compartments: body, soul, and spirit. We express Him through the soul and the body, but our spirit, which is joined to the Lord, is the CEO of all compartments.” The soul is where the emotions, feelings, will, and decisions are made, good and bad. If the decision is favorable toward the Spirit-man (the CEO), then the soul has rest. If the soul decides to respond to the calling of the flesh, it’s not good.
Chairs can be anything on which the soul sets its affections and wants to the point of obsession. It can be things, money, people, prestige—and we make the choice many times a day. When the soul thinks independently and the Spirit’s voice cannot be heard, our peace is upset. Tantrums take over and we’re victims instead of victors. The emotional “me” binge wears us out and this calls for all sorts of pampering of the ego.
Sometimes rest returns the quickest when I remember what I already know, Who He is, and who I am in Him. I am much better at it than I used to be. I guard my peace with more watchfulness and am not too easily moved from it. I stay close to my Spirit-chair, which is the throne of the Holy Spirit. It’s safe there. My independent self is quite deaf when the CEO is back in charge.
Now you’re wondering how I got hooked by a chair. All babies love a rocking motion; my experience with rocking my baby was a bounce on the side of the bed brought about by the bedspring and mattress. This was becoming an issue. Mothers rock their babies; they don’t bounce them.
We were good stewards of money, but right then it didn’t include a rocking chair. I caved into my “soulish” desire until it became a whine, a complaint, and then a yell. I was removed from my center of rest and was out of sync. Was anyone listening to my rights? I deserved a rocking chair! To me, surrender of my cherished chair was so wimpish. Hiding under the cover of self-pity, my soul gave permission for my emotions to have a big fit.
My Spirit-man is a very jealous person and didn’t run to my rescue. It waited for me to run out of steam. I made a choice to go there and now I must make a tangible choice to return.
“Chair, get out of my life, my mind, my feelings, and my peace. Out! Out! Out! You will not have rule over me!” Did it work? Yes, it did. It went out on all four legs.
I had for some months known the “big” death of being crucified with Christ, but now I was learning more of the “daily dying” (1 Corinthians 15:31). I have had lots of bigger “chairs” that have fastened themselves to my soul like barnacles and begged to stay and make me miserable. I usually say with my Spirit-man authority, “Go! Be gone!” And they go.
There may be some of my dear readers who are wrestling with a “chair.” My prayer for you is that you may find release by taking authority. You can tell the chair, “Go!” And you can gain your promised rest from the CEO of your soul.
We later found a beautiful rocking chair in an antique store. I then rocked my babies with peace. Finally, in my mind, I threw out the “absent chair” about which I obsessed. A chair test is not forever; the Lord has allowed me to have three rocking chairs in my home. I love rocking chairs.
Love,
Ruth Ann