A Job Well - Hired!

Generally, I truly enjoy doing house repairs and remodeling. It's very satisfying to look at a finished job and have that "I did it" affirmation warm your heart. In spite of that, there are things about DIY house stuff that I dread and, frankly, I find intimidating. It's jobs that have the potential of turning into huge, complicated, and labor intensive chores. You know - the simple little job, that you set aside thirty minutes to finish, and end up spending the better part of a day on. I've had that happen several times with plumbing repairs or changes, or when you remove something and find out that underneath it was a floor or wall or steps or such like, that had to be replaced. Oh the stories I could tell! It happened, again, on Saturday. A simple plan to strip wall paper off the ONE WALL in our bedroom that had it, paint the whole room, and have a nice surprise for my wife when she got back from a trip to Nashville. NOT! I couldn't get that wall paper off no matter how hard I tried. Gallons of spray and chemicals, two trips to Lowes, and five hours later - I had three feet of wall stripped. That's three feet out of eighteen, and the wall board looks like it got in a hatchet fight and lost. I had a professional come out yesterday and finish it for me. It took him two hours. Now I've got patching, prep painting for the stripped wall, and two gallons of non-surprise to put on the wall. Oh well - something about "plans of mice and men" keeps running through my mind.
Fear of complications? I wonder how much we DON'T do because of that? Make new friends? Volunteer to help a ministry? Commit to a small group? Just maybe - draw closer to God? After all, He's probably got some expectations that could - well - complicate our plans. I'm just glad that He didn't shy away from complications. Like what it took to pay for my sins and allow me to be with Him for eternity. He had to start planning that before He said, "Let there be light."
Sometimes we have to embrace the complicated if we want to grow. Remember Acts 14:22? "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God."