After 7 months of moving boxes, paint, drywall, lumber, light bulbs, flooring, pressure washing, mold remediation, IKEA furniture, Lowe's runs, and a multitude of other things to add to our fixer upper resume, we were on the verge of completing the final project...the kitchen. The hub of the home, especially our home. Our kitchen had dual-purposed as a food prep area and construction zone for months but come December we were approaching the much anticipated finish line of all the fixing up.
Then there was a flood on Christmas morning.
Not a flood of paired-off-animals proportion but enough to ruin brand new flooring in two rooms. Nothing like the sound of your panicked 3-year-old exclaiming "Mommy the potty is leaking!" while you're preparing brunch and enjoying your first Christmas morning in your new house.
The flood led to the discovery that we needed to replace some old pipes beneath the foundation of the house. We knew we would have to one day, we just didn't anticipate that "one day" would be that day. But through God's miraculous provision, what we anticipated would be $15,000+ out of pocket ended up being a mere $1000...because of the flood. Insurance covered it because of the flood. Interesting how sometimes God's provision manifests itself through a catastrophe.
So 2017 started out with a bang....literally. The plumbing company had to jackhammer through the foundation to replace the old pipes. Unfortunately, the plumbers didn't realize they were jackhammering through a layer of asbestos glue on the foundation. Totally harmless unless it's disturbed and made airborne....say for example like jackhammering through it while everything around it is uncovered and completely exposed.
On Saturday February 4, we moved out of our new dream home so that proper asbestos abatement could be done. We were told it would be 2 weeks. It took 6 weeks for us to come back home. They had to pack up all of the contents of our house for cleaning. Everything in the basement, where the jackhammering occurred, was deemed a total loss. And when we finally came back home, we had to move every single item we own back in. Every.Single.Item.
Now here we are, halfway into April and finally settled back into the house we moved into almost a year ago. In the midst of all this, we've endured relational chaos with family and at work as well. We've said goodbye to my sweet Granny as she lay in a hospital bed hooked up to life support...only to have her miraculously healed and return to her home. We baptized our daughter in the Jordan River. I've struggled, endured, and (hopefully) begun thriving in a new leadership role at work. And 2 weeks before all this we got a puppy. (Great timing.) Then as the icing on top on of this bitter mess, our washing machine was damaged in the move...and therefore mockingly useless when my husband and son got the stomach bug this week. There are no words.
Through it all, I knew I would have to write about it. I've left countless friends and family wondering if I've fallen off the face of the planet, questioning why I have stacks of free moving boxes to give away almost a year after moving...but what would I say? I've been at a loss for words.
A few people have asked me, after hearing the many woes of 2017, what have we learned or heard from the Lord. We've learned a lot. And heard a lot. A lot about testing and refining and pruning. We've heard words of love and encouragement from the Lord. We've felt peace in the midst of tears and joy in the midst of sorrow. We've felt rest in the midst of the storm. Someone asked me if we felt like we had made a mistake with this house. Absolutely not. Not after all of the confirmation that God gave us. As I've processed and shared about all the things we've endured and experienced and felt, I can honestly say that I cried more in 2 months than I had in the previous 2 years. I have felt just about every single human emotion from the onslaught of circumstances but there's one thing I did not feel...doubt. I never once doubted God's goodness.
I think somewhere along the line, the American church has somehow convinced its people that God's goodness is circumstantial. And that His presence is circumstantial. Not once in the Scriptures are we promised a good, easy, comfortable life. Not once are we promised that if we choose to follow Jesus, everything will be perfect for the rest of our time here on earth. On the contrary, we see time and time again in the New Testament examples of people willingly risking and giving up their lives for the sake of the Gospel. Why? Because their faith was not based on their circumstances...it was based on a person, a single event in history. It was based on the fact that a man who walked this earth said that there was a God in heaven who loved the entire world so much that He chose to come down to this broken world and overcome it on our behalf. Jesus. "Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame." (Hebrews 12:2) Our faith rests in the knowledge that God is good, even when our circumstances are not. Our faith rests in the knowledge that God loves us enough to endure the cross and emerge 3 days later victorious over death. Our faith rests in the knowledge that the same power that raised Christ from the dead is living in us. (Romans 8:11) Our faith rests in the knowledge that He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. (1 John 4:4)
Its been a rough few months. I'm tired, I'm worn, my body and heart still hurt, and I undoubtedly earned these new wrinkles on my face. But it is well with my soul. Because "my flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever" (Psalm 73:26).
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
John 16:33
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