I know a lot of people enjoy Spring time. The weather is warm, the sky is clear, and the thought of being outside after a long winter is very inviting.

I, myself, don’t mind spring, but my favorite times of the year are Autumn and Winter. I enjoy the cool air, the color, sweaters and pumpkin patches, hayrides and the thought of the holidays just around the corner. Being from Texas, I also love the snow. But my pessimistic side rears its ugly head in the spring.

With the snow and rain gone, the sun illuminates all the things that are wrong with my house an yard, and beckons me to finish the projects that have been started long ago. It’s my nature to take on more than I am willing to finish (except food — I have no problem finishing there!). So today, as the sun came up, I took a gander at the back yard and saw nothing but troubles and projects.

Sections of leaves haven’t been moved from the fall,
No grass is growing in large section of lawn,
Landscape stones need to be placed around the trees,
Weed, fertilize, and mulch everything.

And then I see the projects that I have to do to be able to do other projects:

Fill in two basement windows with cement block so I can:
Backfill dirt around our foundation,
Gravel the muddy driveway with more gravel,
Plant bushes around the house.

Finally, there are the projects that need to be finished inside the house!

Finish the half bath,
Expose the brick behind the plaster on one wall,
Rerun some water pipe with larger diameter pipe,
Rerun some electrical wiring,
Add a light and fan to our “Blue room”
Finish the master bath,
Somehow get water out of the corners of our basement,
Finish the basement,
Tear this house down and start over?

I look around this old house and all I see are projects, as far as my eye can see. What is my response? Get started and get moving? No, sit down and blog!

I want them done before I go overseas, but I know (especially about the plumbing I have to do) that that is simply a pipe dream.

I think my life is tends to be very similar to my house. My spirit and soul are a work in progress. But I am not perfect, and never will be. My sin and my troubles will always be there. Winter is nice because all my faults and sins and mess-ups, and work that still needs to be done on me, can be hidden by the beauty of the snow, or forgotten about during the good times of the holidays.

But isn’t it always like God, to come in during spring, and once again illuminate the sin in my life? Those few extra pounds I need to lose, pure thoughts, humble attitude, a proper witness to others, truly loving my wife, living in this world but for a heavenly one. He is always there, ever the potter. Trouble is, I’m not always the clay. I get so stagnant in my Walk with Him, that I harden — my heart and then my life. Hardened clay cannot be formed. Said another way, a prideful heart scoffs at change from the maker.

As I work on one thing in my house, something else goes wrong or breaks. Constantly. This is a perfect example of God’s grace on me. He puts one fire out in my life and I go and jump into another fire! Oh, what a patient God is He!

As I work on my house projects this Spring, I’ll remember that someone is also working on me.

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