Blog Prologue: Welcome to My House Building

This pic is from the first time I showed my nieces my land last fall!

I am hoping to break ground on my house in just a few days.  But the truth is that I’ve been “building” my house for the past 18 months.  Everything kept dragging out, and in January I decided that I would do a blog that focused on what I learned through the long process of building this house. 

Because for me, the hardest part was getting to this point.  (Sure, I know it will be really hard after this too. Life is hard.  But let me appreciate this moment until the next crisis pops up.)

It all started 18 months ago when I had to decide whether or not to buy the land.  And now, after initialing every detail of the house plan, I’m actually going to see some tangible, visible, real-life progress of my hard work.  

Some of my friends have always talked about wanting to build a house, but I never wanted to.  When I bought the land, I told my friends that God must want to teach me a lot through this building process—why else wouldn’t He lead me to buy a house or rent an apartment?  Now over a year later, I can see that God used the process of house building to build me up into a stronger, braver, more mature woman.  Even though it was painstaking at times, I don’t want to forget any detail of the journey.   

Over the next 17 weeks, I’ll post once a week.  I’ve titled my blog “Seeing the Unseen” based on 2 Corinthians 4:18:

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 

I realized that when I finally see the first beam of my house go up, it will be like seeing the unseen.  Seeing what I prayed for and planned for over a year.  Seeing more than just house plans on paper.

This first dawned on me when my dad walked in my office last November and said, “Hey, did you see that the county marked off and started where your driveway will be?”

I didn’t know they had started my driveway already.  Never before in my life have I cared about rocks that we can drive on, but to my surprise, I had tears in my eyes.  They were “finally tears.”  Finally, I get to see a little evidence of my blood, sweat, and tears. (Okay, maybe not blood, but certainly lots of sweat and tears!)  

My nephew Russ came with me to check out the work they started on my driveway.

This blog will help me to reflect on the path that led me here and see the unseen.

For me, seeing the unseen means…

Looking back to see where God provided even though I couldn’t see it at the time.

Seeing now that God’s timing is best even though the timing seemed foggy and frustrating in the moment.

Walking through and touching a tangible house that was for so long only a piece of paper that I stared at.

Remembering to look for the unseen God and to wait for the eternal future—the eternal home!—that I cannot yet see, but that He is already building for me.

I hope you can join me over the next 17 weeks!  It's always fun for me to hear others' stories and learn from their lessons.  I hope my story will somehow bless you. :)