God’s Work Is Always Worth Doing

Today’s reading: Haggai 2:1-5

I’ve been working on my father’s house for nearly six months, and the place is still a wreck, a victim of at least 15 years of neglect.  Some friends and I (none of whom have much experience doing these things) have removed the decades-old carpet and restored the wood floors. We have also given the walls new paint, and begun repairs on the garage that is just one strong gust from tumbling down.

At our amateurish pace, the garage work will take at least another six weeks or so, and there is still plenty left to do after that: windows are rotting away, the once-plush yard is ravaged with weeds, there’s a huge crack in the ceiling over the dining room, the living room needs much better lighting, most of the storm shutters are not working properly, both bathrooms need new fixtures,  most of the furniture and appliances in the house are well beyond the age of retirement, and, well, I’m sure we’ll uncover a myriad of other problems as we go.

Every now and then a “real estate investor” will send Dad a letter with a quick, tempting cash offer for the house. But, so far, we’ve just ignored them all.

The offers are for but a fraction of what the house will be worth once we restore its  majesty.  And, besides, this is Dad’s home we’re talking about. He has lived there for nearly 35 years! It’s the place where I grew up! This work is definitely worth doing! The house is definitely worth saving!

But every time I open Dad’s front door and see all the work still needed, I think I understand how the Israelites must have  felt a few months into the resurrection of their temple. Their return from exile in Babylon had been glorious and  triumphant!  But the endless work of restoration must have seemed, at times, worse than exile.

I think also of Moses journey out of slavery in Egypt. As the days (and years) in the desert wore on, many of the Jews (very reasonably, I would say) started to wonder if they might have been better off remaining as slaves.

Fortunately, I have God’s glorious history as my guide. Today’s reading reminds me of that:

“Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing?  Yet now take courage, O Zerubbabel, says the LORD; take courage, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; take courage, all you people of the land, says the LORD; work, for I am with you, says the LORD of hosts,I know that He has great things in store for my father’s home, so all the work will be worth the effort in the end. ” (Verses 4-5)

Since his divorce in 1998, Dad has made a habit of opening his home to people in tough spots. Some of these “roomies” paid rent, some did not. Some helped keep the place clean and orderly, others did not. But regardless, my father has kept this tradition alive through the years.

And now, with the renovations, he and I intend to bring his habit, and his house, to its full glory. Dad’s house will be the model for a new non-profit group some friends and I are starting, a group that, God willing,  will bring life back to many homes like Dad’s.

Two of Dad’s great friends are living with him in the home as we remodel it, and, along with the renovations, this little “family’s” goal is that all three men thrive in their lives (as opposed to wasting away in front of the television sets of  nursing homes or mental hospitals).  In the coming days some other friends and I will be helping set the men up in various businesses that capitalize on their under-utilized talents. (One man is a talented mechanic. The other is an excellent chef. And my father still has all of the charm that once made him an outstanding salesman.) And, when The World begins to see all the great things that are happening on that formally dilapidated lot on Moneterrey Street, our non-profit is sure to flourish. I’ve already got my eye on dozens of other dying homes (in Corpus Christ and beyond) for which a similar re-birth is possible — in God’s name.

Thanks be to God for hard work worth doing. May I always have the courage to stick with God’s great plans — even when they seem impossible.