Jamie Jenkins: Living in Chaos
I have been living in chaos for the past four weeks. Remodeling a house while still living there is insanity and I am the insane one. I was not (too) crazy before this project but now I have an an excuse (reason) for my craziness
I am reasonably organized in the way I carry out my day to day life. My desk is neat. I don't deal very well with clutter and mess. I don't throw my clothes on the floor and leave them there. Even if I wanted to, my wife would never let me get away with it
I believe everything has a place and should be in its place. I am not compulsive. That is just the way things ought to be.
And that is the way they are around my house. Or at least the way things used to be.
Four weeks ago we began major remodeling of our 18 year old house. There was some updating needed after all these years and there were some changes that we wanted to make.
If you have ever undertaken such a project you probably realize that it has the tendency to grow. When you do one thing you realize that there is another that would be nice. There are also unexpected "extras" that occur.
I have made many trips to Home Depot and Lowes to purchase and to return what I bought that was not the right type. If they gave frequent shopper discounts I certainly would qualify. I never knew there were so many choices of faucets and light fixtures.
I have heard it said that every home project takes longer and costs more than you planned. Boy, how true that is. Sure, it would be nice to change that feature or add that item. Anything you want can be done. It's only money.
But that is not the most trying aspect of remodeling for me. The most difficult matter is the mess. The dust. The inconvenience. The "I don't know where it is because it is either packed up or covered in plastic."
One morning last week we had no water in the master bathroom sinks but there was water in a downstairs bathroom. No problem. I'll just go down there to shave. There was water in the downstairs bathroom but no mirror. Oh well, who needs a mirror to shave?
The contractor tells me that he will be finished inside by the end of this week. Sure. We were going to be unable to use our kitchen for a couple of days- it took three weeks before it was semi-functional again. Yeah, the end of the week. We will see.
If I sound a little frustrated it is because I am. I am normally a patient person but this has just about pushed me to my limit. OK, so it has pushed me past my limit. I will be so glad when we can reclaim our house.
I know it is going to be good when it is all over. The changes we are making will be nice. We are going to enjoy our "new" house.
I wonder if God feels some of the same frustration with us during the "remodeling" process of our lives? Basically everything is alright but some things needs to changed. Some changes are major and some are minor but all can be messy. And the desired results are slow to be realized.
I know that God is in the business of "making all things new." I just wonder if our slowness to respond to his wishes and the messiness that is involved in this re-creation is enough to test His patience?