Sawdust In Your Eye!

I've spent the last two days working on a new surround for our fireplace at home. This morning, I had to get back over to the office and get some things done! After cleaning up the mess in the living room, I decided to clean up the mess that I had become after two days. I showered, shaved and put on clean clothes. As I was sitting on the deck, drinking one more cup of coffee, I blinked and realized I had sawdust in my eye. I was kind of shocked after showering and shaving that sawdust could still be around to get into my eye!

Then I realized that my glasses were covered in sawdust. The sawdust did two things to me. It really altered my vision and it also hurt. I did what I could to get it out of my eye and was eventually successful. But, after the fact, I began to think of the spiritual ramifications of the moment. I realized that it wasn't the only moment that my vision had been altered in the process of building the surround for our fireplace.

We bought our house thirteen years ago. It was brand new and it had a fireplace in the living room. The fireplace was nice to have but I never really liked the oak box that was built around it. It wasn't something that I figured I could ever do anything about and so I live with it. I never really liked it, but lived with it anyway. We have been doing some updating in the house. We began to have some kitchen appliances go bad and decided to replace them. That meant that we had to put in new counter tops because the old just wasn't modern enough. You all know the routine. The carpet was beginning to show wear and tear after thirteen years of living and two dogs and twelve grandkids. We debated back and forth over hardwood or carpet. We spent months trying to make a decision. We finally decided to go with the carpet instead of hardwood floors. Now we were at the moment of decision. I had in my mind to redo the oak box around the fireplace. I had a man who said he could do it for me, but at the last minute he couldn't get the time before the carpet layers came. It was do or die!

My hesitation came over whether I could do it and it would look professional or shoddy. I didn't want it to look shoddy as the focal point of the living room. I could see the fireplace surround in my mind. I spent a lot of time looking at fireplace surrounds on the internet. I just couldn't convince myself that I could do it and it would look good. As I look back at the situation, you might say I had sawdust clouding my vision even before I cut the first board! I finally got out my knife, got on my knees and cut the old carpet around the old fireplace surround., With that broad cut of the carpet, I was committed to finish the project. I did!

My understanding "If you can see it you can have it!" has been reinforced in my mind. David wrote in the Bible, "Open the eyes of my heart, Lord!" Jesus talked about getting our eyes opened to true understanding. Most people don't understand what they can have in the spiritual realm, because they go through life with spiritaul sawdust in their eyes. They never understand what God has for them in the way of abundance and blessings because so many people around them hold them back and say it can't be done. Do some research and get into the Word of God and you will find that you can do it, too. Ask some friends who are followers of Jesus Christ what they know about spiritual things. There is a whole new life out their for those who will just get on their knees and get started by asking Jesus into their life! Think about it!