The Trouble of Remodeling

The Trouble of Remodeling

At the end of August this year we purchased a farm in South Clinton, Tennessee.  I really have to admit that it has been quite a trial from the beginning.  Although we have desired a farm for quite some time, we have yet to finish the remodeling and feel that we are in a constant position of limbo since we can not seem to be able to complete projects.  I believe the phrase one thing leads to another fully explains our circumstances. For example, I've spent two days putting up half a room of sheet rock this week alone.  This is a perfect example of this project.  While we haven't been short for help and have proved many friends and family members faithful, we still have yet to complete our home...

I really feel this journey has some spiritual parallels that speak to more than just the difficulty of the journey. Since I have been enrolled in a masters program since we purchased the home, I have been inundated with the 'busy'ness of life.  My typical day will send me to work until 5:00pm, work on the house until about 8:30pm, and then I will spend about an hour with Bekah and Lilly, then homework until bedtime.  I don't explain this in order to complain because believe me I know that I am blessed indeed. I just have to say it to get it out.

Bekah and I had recently been expressing our frustrations with one another and we found that our struggles and stresses reminded us of what the Israelites must have gone through on their journey through the wilderness.  For forty years their lives were in limbo between belonging and not belonging to a place. Their hearts must have been constantly churning and seeking to have a place of their own. I wonder if the Lord was delaying their arrival to their 'promised land' until their hearts arrived at the place where he wanted them to reside.  You see, often I see the struggles of this life as a physical obstacle to be overcome, pushing and pulling, removing and building up, and trying to fix or create things to accomplish what I see as His will.  It reminds me of Exodus 33:3 when the Lord told Moses, "Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people."  You see, the people weren't seeking the Lord and He was tired of it.  That's where our story parallels.  The farmhouse has been my Canaan, or promised land, yet, achieving deliverance in to this land has been my goal and not going with the Lord specifically.  Canaan should not be my goal in life, but having a heart that desires only the Lord should be.  While Canaan was promised to the Children of Israel, it was also a test of sorts because it showed the Lord that they desired His blessings more than Him.  My thinking is the same could be said about a spoiled child.  When it comes to the Lord, I don't want to be a spoiled child.

Outside of our circumstances, whether we are delivered to Canaan, or out of sickness, in to prosperity, away from heartache, or in to love with someone, let us first desire the Lord and His will be done in our lives no matter what happens to us.  When we seek Him first and love Him above all, we find that those other needs were never important in comparison.

Please feel free to leave any comments below if you can identify with this! You may inspire others!

Prayer: Lord, please have mercy on me and teach my heart how to fall in love with yours that I can love this world in such a way that they see you and you alone are glorified.  Help me Lord to understand that I can not and will not arrive anywhere worth being until my heart has aligned with yours.