Contentment in the Midst of Chaos?
Al
and I were finishing breakfast when he leaned back in his chair and said with a
smile, “We sure have had a lot of adventures, haven’t we?” Then he added, “Well, this last one really
turned our lives upside down!”
Several
weeks ago, a chimney sweep service was contacted to find out why soot was
building up on our white mantle, ceiling and underneath the pictures hanging on
the walls. The workman who came didn’t find anything wrong with the gas log
assembly or an issue with creosote in the chimney.
However,
he did point out one significant oversight— when the gas log was installed, the
chimney flue had never been completely opened, causing soot in the house. It
looked like the living room and dining room would have to be repainted.
There
were other things that needed to be done before painting, like cleaning the
ducts and installing insulation in the walls. Al had contacted a company to
coordinate all of the projects, which led to his remark at breakfast after
workmen had been in and out of the house for several days. I didn’t think of the
chaos in terms of an adventure though!
Before
the duct cleaning service arrived, all of the registers had to be accessible,
necessitating moving some of heavier furniture away from the walls. TJ, our dog,
was dropped off at the kennel for the day so that he would be out of the way.
After
covering the registers throughout the house with tape and turning off the
heat/cooling unit, the technician hooked up a huge hose from his truck to the furnace
room and then proceeded to suck the dust and dirt out of every register in the
house.
The
debris went into several large vacuum bags in the back of the company truck,
causing the bags to inflate. Was all of that dirt from us? I wondered. It was a
shock!
At the end of the job, the bags deflated,
pushing the dirt down into barrels in the bottom of the truck. The service
technician recommended deep cleaning the house afterwards, even though the
registers had been covered, saying “I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t tell you
that there would be some dust!” And there was!
Almost
a week elapsed before workers came to put insulation in the outer walls of the
house. Pictures had to be removed and heavy furniture again pushed out of the
way. Al took TJ back to the kennel early that morning.
There
wasn’t a room in the house where Al and I could sit for any length of time
while the insulation was being done. Unfortunately, it was cold outside; so, I
ended up in the basement while Al was able to stay in his office once the work
had been finished there.
One
of the men who had been in that business for thirty years informed us that
there was absolutely no insulation in those walls. No wonder the house seemed
drafty! By the end of the day about 90
two-inch holes had been punched in the walls so that the insulation material
could be blown in through a pressure hose!
“Well,
maybe we could have polka-dots painted on all of the walls!” I told him.
“At
least you have a sense of humor,” he said. “Most people get mad at me!”
Knowing
that the painter was scheduled to begin painting the very next day helped me to
overlook the mess. Victor, our painter, had previously helped us with other
projects and was very competent. By the
time he was finished, the plastered holes had disappeared, the living room and
dining room were freshly painted, new blinds hung in the bay window and a
couple of other projects were completed too.
The
Apostle Paul’s secret to being content in any situation by trusting in the Lord
for strength certainly helped me in the midst of the chaos. Our lives,
discombobulated for a time, will be soon be back to normal… at least until the
next “adventure!” Question is, have we learned the secret of contentment?
* Philippians 4:12-13 NIV
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