Oh Rats! Am I stuck?

I could seriously share some rat stories...one of the side effects of rebuilding a house in a rat haven! My greatest fear when we began this project was that the open walls and floors would be an open invitation to every critter known to mankind...and it has certainly not hindered some of them from coming in.

The other night Steve and I were eating dinner after church, sitting on the couch watching a House episode. We had just finished, were talking, just kind of relaxing for a sec when we heard this funny squeak. It got my attention and I sat up. I sat still to listen for it again, and then he heard it. It occurred to both of us what it was and we sat up to look behind the couch. Right behind us (for God knows how long) was a baby rat caught in a sticky trap.

He looked so innocent and helpless. I really felt bad for him. They don't die instantly in a sticky trap, they are just stuck. We discovered through our other adventures that they like chocolate, hence, all the traps have chocolate on them. Watching him try to get loose, and cry because he couldn't, really grabbed my heart. If he wasn't a rat, and me not, I would have wanted to save him.

In my mind, I made a connection. Here he was, very young, lured into this trap by a piece of chocolate, and now he was doomed. Isn't that exactly what happens every day in the life of believers? Something is so tempting, calling us to go down a road we shouldn't be on, away from the safety of God's Word and presence. If we submit to the temptation then the trap has us. We are stuck in situations we can't get out of. We are trapped by the lure of that piece of chocolate. This baby rat could have found something to eat somewhere outside in his own habitat and still be alive, but he went out searching in an area full of danger, and he was caught. Day after day, moment after moment is full of parallel temptations for us. We want that piece of chocolate, and it is in a place of danger. Sometimes the trap leads to death and/or destruction. We realize that the moment we are trapped, but it is too late. Once we are stuck, we are stuck, and it is over.

Not any smarter than the rat, not any more able to discern the consequence before we are stuck. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world...all pass away, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever! (I John 2:16-17)

What to choose...taking a bite of the "chocolate" which leads to bondage and possibly death, or life?

Just Clay

We hit our one year anniversary of "The Flood." We are definitely going to review our life in terms of before the flood and after the flood. At the anniversary, we have our breakfast room finished, the office finished, and four more rooms plus hall ready to be floored. We still have the guest room, the den, and bathrooms to do. Despite the work before us, I am praising God we are in the after flood stage, even if I couldn't have known the after stage would be so life changing and so ongoing.

Yesterday, my pastor preached an amazing message. He is a phenomenal preacher/teacher any way-really a master teacher. There is no doubt he has the gift of teaching. He preached on the potter and the clay, but prefaced the sermon with a text from Jeremiah where God tells Jeremiah to go to the potter's house. Our pastor took us to the potter's house via a video. The video played behind him during the entire sermon. We witnessed the potter forming the clay, cutting away unnecessary parts, shaping, and reshaping to create what we couldn't see in the beginning. His point-isn't that what God is doing in our lives? He is forming us, cutting away to open up the insides, making bowls, vases, etc...vessels...for HIS use. He has a plan for us, HIS plan, and He works out HIS plan in our life. That plan means HE has to get rid of what is unnecessary.

I look at my life in light of that and wonder what HE is doing. I know that this year has been a cutting away, clearing out, and there is no doubt my Potter is molding this hunk of clay.

All of God's Creatures?

So God created everything. I certainly believe that, but I do have questions about that!
When we first began our demo and remodel, I was quite concerned about giving rats access to the interior of the house. After all, how do we keep them from coming in when there are holes in the floors and open walls? The answer to that is-we don't.

We are about to hit our one year flood anniversary, and we still have openings rats can get in. We have traps everywhere....literally. We know they get in the attic, although we haven't determined just where, and from there they go down the walls and out the openings at the bottom. There aren't baseboards yet to keep them contained. Steve said he thought the lack of baseboards was the problem, but I wasn't sure I believed him.

Last night I noticed some droppings in our room...ugh...a rat running around is bad enough, but in our room!!! I couldn't sleep imagining all sorts of horrors. Some where around 5 this morning, our daughter knocked on our door to tell us there was a rat in her room. The room she sleeps in is done. There is no way for a rat to get in there except under the bedroom door. She was certain one had been in there, but I was so tired. We told her to try and go back to sleep, yea right..I had been up most of the night dealing with my own fears...and she really thought one was in her room-there wasn't going to be any sleeping going on there.

After a few minutes, we got up to check out the situation. I knocked on her door. She had investigated. She heard something fall and noticed a tootsie roll pop on the floor under her dresser. She didn't think that had been there before, but she didn't see anything else except one rat dropping. She lay back down, and a little bit later she heard something. The sucker had moved to under her bed. We looked around and couldn't find anything else in her room. We walked around the house looking for evidence...nothing...till....I walked in her actual bed room and bathroom. We knew they had been coming in there and had set traps. I turned the light on and saw movement. I screamed (of course) and rat darted. It went under the wall into the hallway and back into the wall on the other side of the hall. Everyone came running. Steve reminded me that baseboards were the issue, the lack of that is. I was pretty grossed out. He set traps out in the path, since rats are creature of habit, and I let Maggie in. Maggie is our bulldog mix huntress. She came in and set about searching. I somehow feel so much safer with her in the house. She is going to get to come in ALOT today!

So...to what purpose are rats again? Annoying I say. Disgusting scavengers who apparently like chocolate...and here is food for thought. Rat gets in and runs around...whole pantry is on shelves in the kitchen while we are finishing up the actual pantry. Trash is right there in the kitchen...with all these food options wide open...it squeezes under a bedroom door to get a sucker????? We are definitely baiting these traps with the wrong thing!! LOL...Steve told Kat to go put her sucker by the trap! ROFL...she found that not so funny.

I am going to be a little gun shy today, looking under, around, by everything...even though my rational mind tells me that he is long gone and won't be back before tonight....hmm...Maggie, here girl...want to sleep with mommy???

Seeing Differently

It is such a beautiful thing to watch what God is doing around me. It is never what I think should be happening in any way remotely similar to what I would have done. I am often very thankful God is God and I am not!

I love hearing testimony! Change is not easy, it is painful. Pruning hurts. Our life took a radical turn a year ago when our house flooded. Our pastor told us we are going to be able to divide our life into pre-flood days and post-flood. He is so right. What mattered immensely during the pre-flood barely gets a blip on my radar now. The house is in so much chaos all the time. Chaos is not my strength and how I have done this, only the Lord knows. I get so excited for a little light in this rather dark tunnel. My breakfast room is almost done...that comes as my hubbie chased a rat under the pantry wall this morning. Rats are not inhibited when there are holes in the wall and open access to the house. My daughter just popped her head in and told me there was a rat in the sticky trap this morning. She took it in and went back to bed. There was a day when that sight would have ignited a hysterical fit in her and I! I almost felt sorry for the rat, but not quite!

I often remember my friend telling me at the onset of this adventure that what is going on in our physical life parallels what God is doing with us spiritually. Her assessment was that I had too much clutter in my life, and it needed to go. She didn't mean that in the sense I don't clean house, but in the sense that there is too much stuff going on all the time, and something needs to go. Remodeling the house has closed other doors. We are less on the go, more able to say "no, we can't do that." We never said no before. At the same time, what we say yes to has changed. We have gained tools and skills that we feel is God-given and want to be available to use those skills. We say yes to those we know God has put in our lives at this time and at this moment. I don't know when or where the end is, what it means, or how I will view all of this when I am looking back on this period of my life. I know I will be changed. I know I am already seeing things differently, and prayerfully, I will learn to see through God's eyes...what is important to Him, what His goals are, His purposes, and be able to set my will aside to pursue His will for me!