Not a Pro

I grew up watching my grandpa Lee build any and all things. He amazed me with his skills in engineering and quick math to get the job done. I’ve seen him look at furniture and then within the next week replicate it. He built rocking elephants, wine barrel furniture, wall art, clocks; and that’s only to list a few. To me he was a craftsman to the core, always drawing on restaurant napkins. If that’s not legit I don’t know what is?

Being able to take bits and pieces of raw material and turn them into something beautiful and useful is my jam. I love it. So it’s very fitting that my excitement level is through the roof right now as I watch our back deck being transformed from ‘taking your life into your hands if you climb the stairs’ to ‘the view from up here is amazing’.

before

You can see from the picture above what a wreck it was. A messy situation for sure. A few nights ago I dreamed that I was standing in front of a house looking at the porch. I had just finished painting the railing white and I was admiring how great it looked. Then something caught my attention and I looked to my left and realized that the house was so much bigger than I had thought. I took several steps back and looked at what was now the whole picture, this giant house but it was in full construction mode.

In my mind I thought the porch was the finished project, and I was content with just the small area that I saw. However there was a much larger project going on that I didn’t even know was there! When I woke up the scripture Psalm 127:1 came to mind. It says, ‘Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.‘ This makes me reflect on our deck. If I tried to build it I would never fully trust in it’s strength and sturdiness. But because the men who are actual builders are putting the posts in and constructing it correctly, I have complete trust. Trust that it won’t fall apart when we enjoy the view from the top. Trust that it will withstand the winds of winter.

Such is life. Over the years I’ve tried to build my life the way I saw fit. Making decisions without consulting the Master Life Builder. Assuming that my plans and ideas were all that mattered. When in reality there was a much bigger project going on that I had no clue about. It’s just like me to have tunnel vision and only see what I want to focus on, like the porch in my dream. After an ongoing remodel of both inside and out of our home I’ve learned a few things. One thing is that the pros are just that, pros. They know what needs to be done and ultimately what can be done. So I need to just let them do their job and in my daily life I need to better learn to hand the plans over to God. He sees the bigger picture and always has my best outcome in mind.

after While our back deck isn’t completely done it’s just like my life; a work in process.

-A