Renovating

With the move, settling in, and in the middle of it all, a birthday/memorial, a few things were put on hold. A little physical atrophy from not training, though moving is a workout in itself, along with a bit more spiritual atrophy than I would’ve liked. I had not done any of my in-depth study in Luke; my quiet time was just casual reading in a Bible app’s reading plans.

The stress was getting to me surprisingly; it went smoother than many things before. Cracks began to appear in my day-to-day activities; I was getting snappy and mean. Fortunately, it stayed in my head…usually, though, body language does not lie very well. It really became evident one day when I had a scenario run by me while waiting to checkout at the grocery store. I snapped my answer to it in annoyance at a slight that had not even happened. That is when it sank in how important my quiet time in the Bible was. One of my many character flaws is my anger issues and they returned.

The thing with people like me who have many issues, the conversion or sanctification process of the Holy Spirit is evident. It is like a major attitude adjustment. I had been wondering why I was not seeing the major changes in my wife. Then I remembered an analogy by C.S Lewis about a widget factory under new management. I could not verify it, though; however, I found this one…

 “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

Casey on her worst day is me on my best day; she is probably getting little renovations where I am getting walls torn down and junk tossed out of the window. I guess you could consider quiet time as the time you are consulting the blueprints for the palace. If you don’t you might wire it wrong, at least I have a trustworthy architect.