Well, I am embarrassed to say that it’s been another week of work and the house is still not on the market. That means that for the past month both J and I have been putting in over 60 hours a week into this renovation and we are just now finishing up. J stayed up 36 hours straight working on the house one day and my record is 24. We’ve taken off work and we have had friends volunteer, so how is it even possible that we are not done? I can go through every little project and explain how tedious it is and how long it takes to do things like prep and paint each of our 20 antique windows, but lets just say it’s been a lot more than any of us bargained for.

Today is our farewell luncheon at the church, although thinking about celebrating this transition is actually the furthest thing from my mind right now, especially since it will be a while before we actually go anywhere. I feel an immense amount of pressure, but I know we will get through this. I heard a podcast by Danny Silk of Bethel the other day called “The Master of Breakthrough” and since I had just said I wanted to go from breakdown to breakthrough I knew it would be pertinent to my situation. In this sermon he talks about when you picture water breaking through a hose, a water balloon, a dam, or whatever it is there has to be pressure behind it first.

We have been using a lot of power tools around here lately and one of the things is an air compressor. It’s really noisy, and I don’t know exactly how it works, but I do know that it supplies air pressure to a nail gun that allows the nail to breakthrough the surface you are working on. We’ve also had to use a pressure washer, same concept, but using pressure to use water as a powerful tool. When I apply this concept to my life I can see pressure as a good thing. It feels so difficult, but maybe God is using this as a tool in my life.

And since I really don’t know much about tools (although I’ve learned some in the past month) let me give one last metaphor using something I do know about and that is childbirth. You have life inside of you that is growing and forming and it feels like it can take forever. Sometimes you are excited, other times you are nervous, or just plain nauseous. This is how I feel these days. Then the time comes and you are in labor and you know the end is near, but the pain seems unbearable. And it’s the moment that you feel the most intense amount of physical pressure that is the moment that the baby is about to “breakthrough”. Sorry if that mental picture is a little too graphic, but it is a beautiful moment in any parents life to hold that child for the first time and know that all that you went through was completely worth it.

I’ve had two babies and I can tell you that the whole process including the pregnancy was a cake walk compared to what I am going through right now. However, I am trying to stay positive, at least for this blog, if you were my best friend you would get to see the really ugly side of things. It won’t be much longer though and this picture will show up in the real estate listings.