House-Keeping…but Which House?
Following Jesus every day in the everyday is sometimes a glorified housekeeping job…
There are enough different uses of the word “house” in Scripture that when, as a New Testament believer, I encounter Old Testament passages about God’s house, I have to ask the Holy Spirit for understanding about what it means in my life. For the last several weeks I have found myself in the itty bitty book of Haggai. God points out that the attention of His people has been on fixing up their own houses to the detriment of His “house,” the temple in Jerusalem. As a result of this inattention, God has brought drought, blight, shortages and mildew to the nation, not punishing them, but inviting them to make Him a higher priority in their lives. (My own place of abode could use some maintenance and sprucing up, so I don’t think that is what He is talking to me about…)
Peter addresses the Church, saying: “You are God’s house, His building.” (the “you” being plural here). Most of my time and energy is spent on that very “building,” His people, so it’s hard to imagine that this is what He’s addressing in me…
Jesus tells us in John 14, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” Sounds like God’s house to me! More personally, Paul’s words from 1 Corinthians declare: “Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.”
Okay, now the Holy Spirit has stopped preaching and gone to meddlin’!
Not because I don’t exercise: Gardening and mountain biking (Thanks, Hub!) are part of my regular life.
Nor because I don’t eat right: Convicted a few years back that His “temple” was not adorned well with garbage, disciplined eating has resulted in a 20 pound weight loss over the last year and a half. (Yes, I could probably lose it faster, but this is not a diet; it’s a life-style choice.)
Maybe it’s lack of sleep…my calling (and some lack of discipline here) often shorts me on sleep.
But most likely, the cause of my hair falling out, my ready-to-boil-over responses to off-hand comments, and my slow creep up the blood pressure scale belong to lack of care for this heart-house, this place He has chosen for His Name to dwell. The buildup of chaos in my house, on my floors and in my head turn up the stress level, and I have done too little to address it. I have done less to care for my heart: I tend to ignore my emotional needs: beauty in my environment, beauty in music, friendship, visual peace… I even have a gift of massage that’s been waiting for me almost two months…
I would rather be a house-keeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. 😉 (see Psalm 84:10) No wonder there’s been a “drought in the works of [my] hands.” (Haggai 1:11)
Time to take my “house-keeping” job seriously!
Following Jesus every day in the everyday,
Christi
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