wrecked houses.

"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself." 

We don't even KNOW the plans the Lord has for us. In our little limited mind we assume that we can fathom up something that would be "perfect" for us. Yet the Lord of all creation, the Sovereign Lord of the universe that delights in all our details sighs, "not even close son/daughter... I have so much more." How would it look for us to throw off "our plan", and just rest? Truly truly rest in surrender of that He has it, and always has. I mean this time last year, entering my senior year, had I applied that - I probably would have saved my self a ton of "chaos", doubt, and rerouting, because honestly... He was telling me where to go the whole time. I just wasn't listening. I wasn't choosing to see.


His working isn't always how we wish it would be. We want "to know" - but God just show me this far and with the rest I will be fine, but the thing is, if He did, what would be the point in faith? Because we would always be wanting and "needing" more. always. We think oh goodness, He has probably forgotten about this detail in our cottage, when He is thinking, "yeah it might seem that way because I am not constructing a cottage, I am constructing a palace - and those don't look the same." We have to choose to believe that when we don't understand His hand, we can trust His heart. We stand unshakeable on His promises. 


How would our mindset change if we trusted the Lord as He is, Greater? greater than our thoughts. greater than our trials. greater than our plans. greater than our mindset. Oh goodness, He so desperately wants that for us. Yet we chose to confine ourselves to our limited ability every single day, and we wonder what's going on...when things are painful. He is molding us into HIS IMAGE. It's not always easy, it hurts sometimes. We have to be cracked to let Him through. Oh but how beautiful the process is, its a way to LIFE, and LIFE TO THE FULL. Learning to embrace brokenness and being cracked is something that is definitely a process. But wow, how faithful the Lord is during these times. His hand never leaves. 


I am so learning what it means to trust and expect God with the palace, when I am just living in and seeing the cottage.