While I do have some grey hair, my hair was pretty much white after sanding down 8 walls with a pole sander. Thankfully I was able to borrow an electric sander that connects to a shop vac from a friend doing some work next door. This sanding portion of the project has been by far the most difficult and messy. I think there is a 1" layer of dust that has settled throughout our entire house. Though it has been the hardest, it has been a fruitful time for the Lord to stir my heart to realize spiritual truths that related to this task.
I had a young man, who is about to go off to college, over to help me apply the first layer of texture (2 whole boxes worth). The Lord had impressed on my heart that I needed to discharge the duties of my ministry in this young man's life. The Lord had blessed me with the relationship and the vantage point to be able to speak truth though windows that the Lord had opened to me. I feared for my friend that the desire for independence and the desire to be respected by his peers had blended with pridefulness and was blinding him to even greater dangers that lie ahead on the college campus.
How cool was it to hear that God had already begun revealing many of the very things I felt led to discuss with him. It truly was a blessed time of conversation, that left my friend humbled and truly desiring to take steps to seek forgiveness for many acts of pridefulness that had impacted the relationships in his life. He even desired for his parents to be a barometer helping him recognize pride in his life before it ran out of control. An 18 yr old seeking to humble himself before God and his parents is truly a miracle!
I thought that was all the lessons for the day, but I was wrong. As I put in my ear plugs to run the sander and shop vac to smooth out a few "blemishes" that I couldn't get with the pole sander, God began to teach me about my own pride. I looked over MY walls with pride having finished texturing 8 walls and having sanded them down with the pole sander. I almost made up the texture to be blown in 'cause this should be quick. Well as I got good lighting, and really began inspecting the walls, I was amazed that whatever wall was right in front of my face was covered in bubbles, scratches, grooves, bumps, divits, and ripples. When only a few feet away I didn't see any of that. I couldn't see the places where I had failed to have a smooth surface without blemish, until I looked at it carefully and up close.
As I had spent time helping my friend to see the areas that pride had created blemishes in his life and relationships, I was confronted with the question, "When was the last time you really looked at the walls in your life slowly, carefully, and with the Light of God revealing your pridefulness and sin? Would you pray for me and consider joining me as I let God shine His Light on the walls of my life and reveal any (better said ALL) of the blemishes and bubbles, scratches, grooves, bumps, divits, and ripples of pride that Christ desires to sand down and cover over with His blood and His holiness. Just as sanding the walls took hours and get messy, I am sure this will take some time and looks to be pretty messy as well. Praise to the Glory of His Grace that He answers such prayers!
Ro 7:24-25 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
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