Laying foundations

Gas logs burn in the fireplace. A clock lying on the counter ticks. Tall windows display a hillside arrayed with tall trees.

Our gray cat sleeps in the brown rocker by the window. A yellow neighbor cat sleeps on a stool sitting outside the same window.

Newly placed furniture vies for floor space with stacked boxes and miscellaneous items just unpacked. A lamp base without shade occupies the carpet near an overstuffed chair. A lamp shade without base rests on the coffee table.

Yesterday I organized a kitchen with far fewer cabinets and drawers than our previous kitchen. Even with all the giving away and throwing away we did before the move, along with the handy-dandy organizer units I found and the new donation boxes started, several needed kitchen items still cry for homes.

A houseful of windows cry for coverings.

Much remains to be done – so much that, if I do not consider one room at a time, one task at a time, the job overwhelms me. This assignment requires energy, tenacity, creativity. This assignment has nothing to do with my purpose in this place – and everything to do with it.

Some tasks lay foundations for other tasks. For example, bathing and brushing your teeth have nothing to do with your purpose for any given day, but doing them sets you up for greater success in accomplishing the day’s purposes, especially when those purposes involve relating to other people.

How important to do foundational tasks well! How crucial to making other tasks easier!

The last time we moved, our family of four included two teenagers, a traveling husband and a working mom. We tried valiantly to organize things. Yet, bowing to crowded schedules, we relegated such duties to minutes stolen here and there, often late at night, over a period of months. Exhaustion, confusion and haste do not wise choices make.

Only in the last three years, as God has begun reordering my life, have I realized how greatly the helter-skelter arrangement of our closets, cupboards and drawers handicapped us. Because we didn’t know where to find things, we spent much time hunting, often with great frustration. We bought many duplicates.

Some tasks pave the way for accomplishing other tasks with ease. Because these foundational tasks don’t usually have deadlines, we may let more urgent responsibilities crowd them out. Doing so makes our lives more complicated, more frustrating, less restful and less fruitful.

Proverbs 24:3-4 says, “By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.”

Right now, I sit, watching the trees stand peacefully outside the windows and the fire flicker within. The gray cat that previously slept in the brown rocker has padded over to lie in my lap. Already, I’m enjoying rare and beautiful treasures.

Knowing my husband and I will build a life here, I ask God for wisdom and understanding to begin it well. In a few minutes, alert to whatever insights God will give, I’ll open another box.

© 2008, Deborah P. Brunt. All rights reserved.