Robbing Peter to Pay Paul
Life may have upped the ante, but the Universe holds the trump card
Robbing Peter to pay Paul...happens all the time. Not the best feeling in the world, but it buys time, right? That is until Peter comes calling, and he’s been keeping a tab.
The discomfort I inflicted on my poor husband
It had gone on far too long. My husband was not comfortable on our squishy feather couch. I love it...it’s perfect for me. But just like our bed, Papa Bear Randy likes a firm couch, but Mama Bear likes furniture that cradles in cuddliness.
My BFF and I spotted a new furniture consignment store, which I wanted to explore. There were lots of good options, and I looked at everything to find an appropriate solution for Randy. He deserves to have comfort his way.
Photos flew instantly through the internet, sharing, describing, and indicating what was firmer and what was softer. Comments came and went, what he liked, what he didn’t like. I was certain beyond doubt that I would find the right couch to please and accommodate my Randy.
Before making a final decision, we headed over to our favorite consignment store. Much higher end, pristine furniture, all looking like it came out of a showcase home where no one actually lived.
This one’s too soft, but this one is just right.
There it sat unassuming and almost anonymous. A cream colored, leather sofa, hard as the proverbial rock, but not necessarily uncomfortable. With a recliner at each end, and a separate matching recliner, I thought, “How many reclining options does one need?’ Apparently, the answer is three. Three reclining options.
As I’m staring at this seating combo, I remembered sitting in my bank account was the installation money for the generator. Believing that Randy would love this couch, a thought dropped into my head.
“Buy the couch.”
What?
“You heard me, buy the couch.”
The price was a bit more than I wanted to spend, and the money I held was earmarked for Peter. But Paul was in my ear, telling me what a wonderful thing this would be for Randy.
There was no doubt in my mind. Randy did deserve the couch. He’d been sitting on squishiness for ten years, never complaining, but always suggesting how marvelous a recliner would feel.
Letting go of what doesn’t serve Randy…the recliner
Up until now, I just couldn’t abide a recliner in my home. Recliners have a stigma in my mind, as does furniture with cupholders. Please, I mean no offense to all of you great readers who have recliners and cupholders in your furniture. They just aren’t my cup of tea.
Unless you’re Billy Bob comfortably seated in your recliner at the river’s edge, fishing line bobbing in the water, buffalo wings in your lap and a beer in the cupholder, for me, these pieces were reserved for home theaters.
There was no ignoring the voice in my head. My heart reminded me of my love for Randy, and how perfect these two hand-me-down pieces were for him. The generator installation money had been sitting in my account for a couple of weeks looking entirely too available. The longer it sat there, the more opportunity life had to spend it on something else.
I marched to the counter to address the gentleman. “I’d like to talk to you about a couch at the back.”
“Oh yes,” he replied. “A lot of people have been looking at this couch.”
“Well, it’s going home with me,” I said with a bit too much sass, and a feeling of such abundance and opulence that I could have purchased the entire store had that been my desire.
There is a greater power at work
Because, you see, I live with a knowing. I know how God supplies through the Universe, how all the particles are arranged to bring me exactly what I want. So when I bought Randy a new couch and recliner using the money earmarked for the generator installation, I had no doubt, none whatsoever, that the funds would be replaced at the appropriate time.
I can rest and trust that the Universe knows what it’s doing. Although I haven’t seen the evidence yet, I know it’s on the way. See, I don’t have a missing money problem. I have a trust and calm expectation.
It’s a wonderful state to be in especially considering that the generator installation has been moved up one week just in time for the start of hurricane season. Now I have less time to wait for the evidence to arrive. How cool is that?
Sure, but the math doesn’t work.
What do you do when the math doesn’t work, but your calm and peace are in play? That’s easy. You sit on your beautiful new couch, grateful that your husband is no longer in pain. You tell the electrician, “of course, you can install the generator this week.”
Rather than feeling like expenses are outpacing income like the hare leaving the tortoise in the dust, you smile at God. Thank Him for always wanting you to have what you want, and for being so consistent in supplying that breathing calmly is second nature while you wait.
Still, sometimes life plays its own hand
Even in the midst of all this believing that both Peter and Paul will be paid in full and on time without delay, life decided to play the Joker card. Peter presented a blindsiding invoice.
I require a surgery of which my part of the cost is several thousand dollars. When I told Randy, he looked at me and said, “Well, of course, if we had known this was coming, we wouldn’t have considered a generator and a new couch.”
“Oh, but we would!
You deserve it, and God has no limits.”
Everything is already mine. I am just as calm and peaceful now as when I arranged for the couch. Life may have upped the ante, but God holds all the cards.
I don’t have to figure it out. The Universe already knows, even in a shortened time frame.