Blessings from Destruction

Our neighbour's shed catching on fire has definitely given me a lot to think about.

Though our shed was relatively safe from the blaze, the siding on the back of our house melted.  Our insurance company is covering the cost of the damage.  Since Dom is good at working with his hands we are actually able to save on costs and use part of the money for new windows.  This is good news since we are conducting the world's slowest house-flip and needed to get the windows done anyways (we probably would have thought of them a few years down the road).

So through the destruction of our house we are able to reconstruct parts of it that needed to be replaced anyways.  I think this gives us a good lesson as Christians.  Blessings can come out of destruction.  Sometimes destruction is necessary to move forward with our walk with the Lord.  We don't like it, but God has this amazing ability to use things we don't like (or think should be a negative aspect in our lives) for His glory and for our own good. 

This photo was taken on our deck. 

No matter how big the blaze seems to be, God is always in control. We need to learn to trust Him through the destruction.

2 Corinthians 4:16a,17-18 (ESV)
"So we do not lose heart...for this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.  For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."

Feeling the Heat

Recently our neighbour had a fire destroy their shed.  Though their shed was only three feet away from ours, the flames did not spread to our side of the fence. But the heat of the fire melted the exterior siding of the back of our house.

I don't think we realize how influenced we are as Christians by the turmoil around us.  Perhaps we think that if we just build a wall at the right spot, the flames won't reach us - but we don't stop to think that there is heat that can hurt us from a distance.

My neighbour's advice in the midst of the fire was for us to keep pouring water on our own shed, the part of our property that was closest to the flames.  After all was said and done, our shed was still standing.   

What do you do to be refreshed by God's Love?  How do you curb the heat that can destroy?

Philippians 2:12b-16a (NIV)
"...continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.  Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life..."

A Beginning

Apparently I have had this blog since 2005 and done nothing with it.  I recently found it by accident and decided to use it.

Sometimes it is a good thing to look back at where you have been to realize how far along you have come.  Even if it is only to find you must re-trace your steps to gain a distance you thought you had already travelled.

This is my account of the meanders of my soul.  It is designed to be a place where I can pour out thoughts of where I am positioned, what I am facing and the perspective I have on God and life in a specific moment.  So that I can chart the path that the Lord is leading me on and record the lessons He teaches me along the way.