Home as a Remedy for a Wearisome Week

Well, it's been one of those weeks. I guess I should have expected it since it began with the project-laden holiday weekend. There are just so many things going on in life right now.

At Hope, we're busy on all sorts of projects -- a new schedule in October (yay! streamlined! age-appropriate for kids! whoohoo!), new Hope Groups, a new management team, a new web site, a new support staff person, and so much more. I really enjoy the creative tasks of ministry, so most of this is a lot of fun. But, for some reason, my week has been filled with unexpected snags. For instance, I found a company that's willing to donate free top-tier web hosting to our church... for life! But they need some paperwork on our 501(c)(3) status. That sent me searching the office files since we don't have support staff yet, and it's always hard finding things using someone else's filing system. I finally found what I thought I was looking for, only to discover it's not the right form. In fact, we can't seem to find the right form anywhere. A call to the IRS led to lots and lots of department transfers and long times on hold, only to be directed to a request form we have to fill out and then wait a couple of months for a response. *sigh* I'm not giving up, but I'm concerned at how time-consuming the project quickly becomes.

That's just the tip of the iceburg. We decided to transfer our church's accounts to a new bank three months ago, and that also led to an opportunity to establish new credit history (gotta prepare for that building project, ya know!) and a more convenient cash-flow system using zero balance credit cards for leadership. No more long delays when submitting reimbursement requests! But it's taken nearly 3 months to receive our cards, in part because of a paperwork error at the bank. Well, today the cards arrived... but they all had the same name! So now we need to get new cards issued while we wait some more.

At home, it looks like we're going to have to strip and restain the deck. So much for a few days' work over the weekend. The product we used on the floor did not apply correctly, and it's curing in a very splotchy, ugly way. Margo spent time on the phone with the manufacturer, and they agreed that something went wrong. So they're reimbursing us for the costs of original materials, plus all the strippers and cleaners we'll need to start over. But there's no making up for the extra hours (er, days!) this project will take. And we have to wait 4 weeks for the current product to fully cure before we can strip it and begin again.

But the biggest frustration right now is our oven. We've got this beautiful double oven in the new house. Margo is excited about preparing Thanksgiving dinner when we can put the turkey in one and work on all the side dishes in the other. But the oven isn't working correctly. It just doesn't heat up properly, so we haven't been able to use it. The home inspection company (who insists that it was working properly when we took possession of the house) has gone to bat for us with the home warranty company (who is really sluggish in getting the problem resolved). The appliance repair guy and the electrician disagree regarding the problem (we know there's a wiring issue, but what else will we find?), and everyone is passing the buck when it comes to taking financial responsibility to get it fixed. Meanwhile, we've discovered a recurring customer service representative at the home warranty place who is very unpleasant to deal with. (She has this way of talking to us like we're imbiciles or something. Bleh.)

Oh, there's lots more, but you get the idea. So I'm feeling a little worn down and frazzled this week. I feel like I've been working my tail off on different projects, but I have little progress to show for it. Yet even with this frustration, God is reminding me of what's really important in life. I brought home Chinese take-out for dinner to night (remember, no oven...), and simply enjoyed being with my wife and kids. The weariness of the day quickly melted away with a little laughter and some excellent mu shu. It really is good to be home.

I think that sense of peace and saftey from the stress of life is just a tiny indication of what eternity with God will be like. There will come a day when we finally step away from all the busy, frantic, tiresome chores of this life and arrive "home." Jesus said he's been preparing a place for us, and I'm betting it's full of laughter, good food, friendship, peace, and stress-free delight. Imagine what it will be like to finally rest and know that you won't have to get up in the morning and commute back to the daily grind. It's a summer's vacation that never ends and nothing ever goes wrong. The to-do list will simply be to worship, celebrate, love and be loved forevermore. It's a Sabbath that never ends.

Thanks, Father, for the little reminder that you alone are the source of peace. Thanks for reminding me to find my rest and refreshment in you and the blessings you provide. Thanks for the simple joys of home and family. In all this I am content.

(But if you can spare a couple of angels to visit to miraculously refinish our deck for us that would be cool, too.)