8:32a.m. -- I woke up this morning and reasoned myself out of my covers and into a paint stained outfit, shuffled to the kitchen for a banana and headed to the school for a morning of [droning] community service. This was not meant to be a punishment, but an opportunity to paint the love that I claimed for ministry and service on the heart of a women who was overwhelmed with the loss of an entire lively hood-- due to fire.
9:10a.m. -- Arrive at the house with a less than cheery demeanor, hoping whole heartily that it might snow, flood, or maybe be such a health hazard they would send us all away immediately. And then I walked in to the living room of the charred home, a place that someone had once lived and breathed fresh air, a place where safety was found and children watched Saturday morning cartoons. Ravished. Abused. Abandoned. Every surface was been tarnished by flame and water, the carpet was heaping with soggy ceiling, there was baby food sitting on the kitchen counter waiting in vain to become nourishment.
10:16a.m. -- Toss a few dozen books into the dumpster, snagged a spiral notebook that is full of handwritten recipes. The edges are charred but the pages are miraculously white, and avoiding the gallons of water from a firefighters hose.
12:00 -- Feel accomplished, we completely gutted an entire house in approximately three hours. An entire livelyhood, a place that someone came home to afterwork, where they spent hours watching television and hanging curtains. Feel dishearted.
Hebrews 31:9
"Don't be lured away from him by the latest speculations about him. The grace of Christ is the only good ground for life. Products named after Christ don't seem to do much for those who buy them."
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