The fifth guy in one week showed up today to give us a quote. Seems all we’ve been doing lately is getting quotes for different services we need done around the house. Now it’s the front yard gate that needs repairing as well as our driveway, which needs a new seal coat. “Happy homeowning,” one salesman sarcastically said to me on the phone the other day. Indeed. Two years ago when we still lived in a one-bedroom apartment, I was desperately praying to God for a home, for more space, for a backyard. One mortgage, countless house projects, and a noticeably reduced amount in my bank account later, and I can’t even remember what those prayers sounded like. How quickly we forget God’s blessings, His answered prayers. How quickly the grass on the other side becomes greener.
I am beyond grateful for this home. For this place I can nurture and take care of. A place we can invite and host our families. A space we can build memories in. It happened in God’s perfect timing and we were witnesses to that. But as they say, the devil is in the details. Sometimes I wonder if the enemy is simply ensuring we engage in busywork so that we forget the big picture, the big prayers God answered. If our life is fogged up with broken appliances or fences that need fixing, clothes or dishes that need to be washed, errands that need to be run, we are likely to forget the purpose of the container that is our life—to serve and worship God. To be Jesus’s hands and feet.
We have to bring God into the details. We have to invite Him into the in-between moments of our days.
God should live in all the crevices of our life. It is just as holy to treat a salesman that shows up at my door with respect and kindness as it is to read my Bible. We can begin implementing this divine-filled practice by asking ourselves one crucial question: “what areas of my life am I not inviting God into?” And then we prayerfully welcome Him into those places. We may not even know what that might look like, but we leave that up to Him. God knows how to show up and fill a space.
Our “Bible study time” shouldn’t end when we close our Bible or journal. Our prayer life should not be segmented off from the other parts. Finding ways to seamlessly blend God into our routines and activities creates a connection that fuses our will with His. We can recognize His voice easier. I must admit, I am still learning how to do this. It is not easy. It does not come naturally to me. But I know that the more I integrate God into my every day, the less room there is for the enemy to sneak his way in and make a mess of things.
There may be times when the grass is greener on the other side. The desperate pleas for this or that will return. Let these serve as opportunities to be reminded that God has us in our current circumstances for a reason, one which seemingly makes no sense to us, or is unclear. Let every present unanswered prayer point to a recollection of all the answered ones from the past. As tempting as it can be to get lost in the trifling minutiae of our lives and forget the ways God rescued us, over and over, we must “keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).
If almost two years of house projects has taught me anything, it is that the tending to our home is intertwined with the tending to our spirit.
If we are doing one grudgingly, we will bring that same energy into the other. And if we do one lovingly, gently, we will approach the other with that softness. This is why God belongs in the details—they make up our life. As we turn the pages of the seasons we’re in, whether prayers were answered or not, if we’ve invited God in, the peace that passes all understanding will make itself at home in our soul. If we tend to our home with a servant’s heart, dedicating our labor to Him, we will see the next renovation project not as something to dread, but as a blessing to be grateful for. Happy homeowning? I’m starting to think of it more as holy homeowning.