Three-quarter stitches

Cross-stitches are pretty basic: You've got four holes in a square, and you stitch diagonally to form Xs. It looks best if all the stitches are going the same way, and since I'm right-handed, I typically stitch bottom-left to top-right, then bottom-right to top-left. I like the pattern and rhythm of simple stitches like this...

Some patterns - like this one - add in a little challenge called "three-quarter stitches." You don't go from hole to hole in the canvas... you poke the needle through the material between the holes. It's a little hard, actually; it takes some extra force and focus to push the needle through tightly-woven strands. But it has kind of a cool effect, in that it smooths angles and makes the image look less pixelated. In that way, it is a better stitch to fulfill this special purpose:

Why am I wasting a blog post on a stitch?

There are many times in my life when I fall into a rhythm of doing the same thing - the thing that is most efficient, most familiar, and makes the most sense. And in the midst of my comfortable and predictable work, when I feel pretty confident and competent, I hear the Holy Spirit whisper to me: "Let's mix it up and do something new." New? Why? Things are perfectly fine as they are.

But see, Jesus didn't create me, die to save me, and resurrect to restore me to just have a life that is "perfectly fine." Life shouldn't be comfortable, efficient, and sensible all the time - joy, faith, passion and reckless abandon don't rise up out of that mediocrity. So God mixes it up, and asks us to try a new thing, to consider a different way, to go where we typically wouldn't, to see something that we may have overlooked all together. Sometimes it's not easy - usually it's pretty difficult, actually. It's uncomfortable and challenging, making me sweat and wonder if I'll be able to make it through alive, much less successfully. It takes my trust and dependence on the Lord to a deeper level.

And when I am faithful and obedient to listen and follow Him, I experience a way that is more adventurous and that shows me more of the heart of God. He uses it to develop something new and beautiful in me. Sure, it usually doesn't look like I thought it would (He is constantly revising and refining the pattern I planned for myself)... but it is so much better, and I am so thankful for his wisdom, guidance, and purpose.

Listening to "Red Sea Road," by Ellie Holcomb