A house is built by wisdom and becomes strong through good sense. Proverbs 24:3 (NLT)
I was a builder in one of my past lives. Our move to Arizona gave me one last opportunity to start from the ground up and personalize our home to our needs as retirees. Now four years later, construction has begun on the empty lot across the street. I knew something was up last month when I noticed the surveyors stakes outlining the perimeter of the house. Because we returned from Tennessee late in the evening, it was not until the next morning that I saw the full extent of their progress: the porta-potty and dumpster dropped at the front of the lot, piles of dirt strategically placed, and open trenches everywhere with rough plumbing pipes sticking up.
That was last Thursday. But there were no construction workers and all was quiet for the next four days. One of the jobs of the project manager is to keep the everything moving and on time, so down days are never a good sign. As I thought about it, I decided they must be waiting for an inspection of the rough plumbing. And sure enough, early this morning, I heard the beeps and bells of tractors as they pushed that dirt and covered the trenches. Step one passed, time to move on to the next.
“What if the builder never waited for those inspections or followed the building plans?” I wondered.
How foolish that would be! Talk about buyer beware since most of us don’t have any idea how to properly build a house.
The same goes with how to live our lives. Without the guide book (the Bible) and the Master Project Manager (the Holy Spirit), how would we know what is our next step?
Wisdom and knowledge come through life experiences, both good and difficult. I wished I learned as much from those times on the mountain peaks as I learn from crawling through the valley. But, usually, that isn’t the case. Whenever I get in a mess, suffer the consequences, accept responsibility and forgiveness, that is the time when I pray and ask that this experience would not be wasted—that I would learn from it and be able to help someone else.
There is nothing like good sense to meet the challenges of life, often achieved as God inspects the open trenches of our heart to make sure all is well. If there is a problem, He nudges us to make changes and then covers them over with His love. We learn that His plans are best.
I will be glad when the house is completed, the noise, dust, and trucks are gone, and the new neighbors have settled in. I started praying for these folks. Ol’ Eagle Eye will be watching for the next few months to make sure all is well.
Just like our Heavenly Father watches out for us.