The list of work to do on, to, or for our house is really ridiculous. I finally created a spreadsheet to keep track of it all and set a near-impossible goal of doing quite a bit of it while Kelly was out of the country.
Keep track of everything I did, but do everything while he was gone? Hardly.
It seems with any project of this nature (which I am now calling The Hayley Home Renovation instead of “getting the house fixed up”) you simply begin to expect surprises. These surprises are perfectly timed to throw you off track, just when you least expect it.
The latest and most dramatic? Finding rotten roof decking while repairing exterior trim. Surprise!
This is why we have a budget for repairs and improvements, with a healthy contingency built in to cover surprises.
On my task list this past week, other than daily inspections of the house, was information and price shopping for various portions of The Hayley Home Renovation. In the matter of a couple of days, I:
- Looked at shower/bath tile (4 stores)
- Conferred with a fireplace service/supplier
- Idea-shopped for a new shower enclosure (2 stores)
- Talked to a locksmith
- Refrigerator shopped (7 stores)
- Window-shopped home accent pieces (2 stores)
- Selected interior and exterior paint colors
- Received in-depth instructions from the USPS on mailbox regulations
Talk about staying busy! But sure enough, all sorts of things popped up to slow me down as I worked my way through the to-do/see/learn list.
I was relaying the details of the last item on my list to a colleague, sharing how the postal service worker took away 15 minutes of my life explaining a 2 minute regulation. My friend looked at me and said:
You know, you’ve just gotta keep a sense of humor about these things.
He’s right. And I am – just ask my mom. I shared the ridiculous postal service story with her because I needed to laugh with someone about it. And I figured it was better to laugh with my mom than at the postal employee!
The surprises are what got us in trouble with debt when we moved into our house. We had $10,000 in cash sitting in the bank when we moved in. Six months later, we looked up and were $12k in the hole because of “house surprises.” We stopped doing stuff then, but the damage had been done.
Of course, you’re keeping much better track than we did, so you’ll avoid our end game. But even if we had kept better track along the way, I wonder how much we’d been able to stop that was already in progress….
Ah the joys of being owned by a good home!! Even if you have your mortgage paid off, your house is a gift that just keeps on giving. The year after my parents paid off there house, they had to sink $13k in cementing the ducts underneath their house (yes, it’s THAT old) to prevent the spring rains from flooding out their house.
Yes, welcome to the joys of home ownership! Keep that sense of humor in place!
Sheesh! To heck with the bugger of the home to-do list… How is Kelly? How was his trip? 🙂
I am home. The experience was life-changing. My very first visit, I had 12 people sitting and listening to me share the Good News. 3 were already believers. After the visit-all 12 were! They were VERY receptive to the Gospel. They are a very warm people. I wanted more time with them.
I am still very tired and have work to catch up on–but I plan to do a newsletter on it and send it out.
Main things I have to say about my time away…
It is remarkable that in 4 days I shared a simple message of what Jesus did on the cross-and 27 believed. How long would it take to get to 27 in the USA? I am astounded by our coldness to what is most real…
I filled a personal gap about a verse. Ever wonder about the verse, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" I always did. I did a study on it (with some help) while there. Here is what God told me throught that verse…
These were some of His last words. Some other good last words (just before betrayal) are in John 17. In both cases He is speaking to the Father. Now, in John 16 He just finished preparing the disciples for what was coming. So, then He looks to heaven and prays in chapter 17. (By the way, I really think THIS should be called the "Lord's Prayer." The other one should be called the "Disciple's Prayer, as given by Jesus.")
A. He prays for Himself VV1-5
B. He prays for the Disciples VV6-19
C. He prays for ALL who receive the message of the Gospel vv20-26
My focus was on the last one. See, it had to do with what we were doing in sharing the message-and why it is important to Jesus-THAT THEY MAY ALL BE ONE. Read the words slowly and digest them. All 7verses. Slowly. Listen to the intimacy. Jesus is having a quiet time and we get to hear. It is not just intimate, it is revealing of motivation for Jesus. What does He want out of the cross? Read the words again…
Now let's go to the cross. Why did Jesus say, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?"
Well, you will need to think about this yourself…but here are some ideas. Start with going to Psalm 22-which is what He is quoting. Wanna have some fun? Read the whole Psalm and see how prophetic David was in that Psalm. Guess what it is pointing toward? The cross. Jesus WAS crying out-AND feeling forsaken. But why? Does this speak to the power of sin? The Bible says He became sin-so is it as simple as just to say that God had to look away because He is holy and cannot look at sin?
I heard God say to me, "Let's go deeper." I believe this moment speaks, not as much to the sin He became or took upon Himself. It speaks to the strength in unity that Jesus (as a man) had with the Father. Stop. Think about this. Jesus was God. Fully. Jesus was a man. Fully. I do not believe Jesus stopped being God-ever. So, in His "identity" Jesus NEVER lost unity (remember John 17) with the Father. But in the moment of becoming sin-He lost unity in "relationship."
Think of it this way…while out of the country, Shannah & I never stopped BEING ONE. But I did forsake her "in relationship" for a time-for a good reason. Did she "feel" alone? Did she hurt? Was she lonely?
This is what Jesus did for us. In that moment He chose to allow Himself to feel something His humanness had never felt before-so that we would never have to be forsaken. He had ONLY known unity with the Father. He gave that up-and amidst all of the physical pain, He cries out in pain for THIS?! Yes. Because unlike you and me-He did not earn the wages of sin that we do. He did not know this feeling. It is ALL we know-as we come from a place of brokenness and can ONLY move toward unity with the Father through Jesus. See how we are opposites from Jesus? Yet, He is our model to follow.
Why did He say it? So we would be one with Him and the Father-and with each other. He showed His obedience AND humanity in that moment. And just like with Shannah (because I WAS faithful to her while gone-and I DID return to her) God never TRULY forsake Jesus in the end. He raised Jesus from the dead Himself, did He not?
If you have never placed your trust in what Jesus did on the cross (alone) and in the fact that God raised Him from the dead… Romans 10:9-10 says that all you have to do is trust in these things in your heart for salvation-and you will receive this gift of eternal life. I learned on this trip that there is nothing wrong with that message-but something is VERY wrong with us when we refuse it. There are people we would choose to feel sorry for or look down on – who will receive it while we reject it in our Pharisee world. Our problem sometimes could be that we start believing so much in ourselves that we dod not think we NEED unity with Him. Or, maybe we feel uncomfortable about the thought of being in union with Him (opposite of Jesus).
I learned about how woefully far away from this truth of unity in relationship with the Father. I believe I have unity in identity and cannot lose that-because of trusting in Jesus for salvation-just as I trust a chair to hold me up when I sit. Still, Jesus was motivated for me to have the SAME unity that HE had with the Father.
Staggering.