Darkest before the Dawn

We took title to a house on Tuesday. We are now in the stage I call the sow's ear stage. You know the old saying turning a sow's ear into a silk purse. I think it is supposed to be "you can't turn a sow's ear into a silk purse". Most of the houses we have bought have looked like a sow's ear when we purchase them.

The deconstruction stage takes about as long as the construction. When we start I am often thinking this thing is a disaster and there is no way we will ever turn it into a livable house. We quite often end up with houses that elderly people have lived in. I do understand why they stay in their houses longer than they should and I would not want anyone to move to a home they are not familiar with when they are comfortable living at "home". But the value of a house falls quite quickly when there are no updates or even fixes.

Sometimes walls need to be totally taken apart and sometimes the cracks in the plaster have not been attended to.

sometimes there are interesting "fixes" that need to be rectified

Micah carried out refuse on Friday and piled it behind the house. The former owners have asked to be able to take anything they want to keep out of our discard pile. My reply was why would you want to save it, it has no value. Their reply was "you don't want to throw away stuff you might be able to use."

I look at my life and think it is a lot like a house rehab. It often has to get a lot worse before I see the error of my ways and clean up my act. I have often lived too long doing things a certain way even though I would be better off moving on. There is usually a lot of garbage that needs to be carried out and thrown out and once thrown out it needs to be let go permanently. The junk in our lives really has no further use. If I throw it out though that would be a problem because then everyone might see all the garbage I have been hiding inside of me.

Sometimes our lives are just a mess and looking nasty on the inside.

If we submit to God and say, "please take over and do it Your way" the end result is so much better. There might be a some pain between surrender and change. 

All the fixtures of your life might need to be torn out and replaced.

But the end result is so much better than when we are trying to do it on our own and hanging onto the garbage in our lives.

I love my new toy. We only buy Dewalt and Bostich tools because we think they are the best. Here's the thing, if we submit to God and let Him clean up our lives and lead the way, He only gives us the best. Just ask me when we meet, I will tell you how much God has blessed us since I have given up control and said, "Hey God you take the lead, I am here just to follow."