GUATEMALA 2011: (19) The Insanity of a Convicted Mind

But I have no regrets. I couldn't be more sure of my ground—the One I've trusted in can take care of what he's trusted me to do right to the end.

2 Timothy 1:12 -The Message

Kayci-- Empty slab... where do we begin?

Can you hear his thoughts? He was the first one on the slab that day. We had a pile of wood, a bucket of tools, and a concrete slab. It was up to us to build a home for a mother and her children. I am lucky if I can successfully build a sandwich... and here, the future of a family depends on our ability to see this job to it's completion. Yes, this is a prime time to feel overwhelmed.

But, get used to it... you see, it is part of the journey.

I had serious moments of disbelief on this job. When the children were running all around us, the people of the village were watching us from the ridge, and the sun was beating down heavy on the tops of our shoulders. The job seemed to large, the challenge simply too complicated, and our ability sadly lacking. And yet, we kept on, one cut and one nail at a time.

Mistakes were made, and corrections soon followed. Sometimes multiple corrections. The sweat fell and our patience waned... and the sun still shined.

Into my head came the memory of an old hymn:

I know not why God’s wondrous grace
To me He hath made known,
Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love
Redeemed me for His own.

• But “I know Whom I have believed,
  And am persuaded that He is able
  To keep that which I’ve committed
  Unto Him against that day.”
• -Daniel W. Whittle, pub.1883

Flash forward 4 days later. Our bodies have grown tired, and our minds and hearts have grown strong. The concrete slab has given way to a home.


My mind raced through all the cuts, the bent nails, the mistakes and corrections, and I realized again that it was all worth it.

I remember the moment that I hammered in the final nail. I took an extra beat to zero in my strike, and then drove the nail home with determined force. The sound reverberated across the mountainscape. Home number one was complete.

On the second home, Kayci delivered the same strike, his hammer falling like the christening of a battleship. We were done.

I had a moment on that mountainside. No-one else noticed, but as Kayci and I gathered up our tools and the realization sank in that we would soon be walking away from this completed home... my heart began to weep.

I knew I was forever captured on this hillside, with this dusty hammer in my hand, looking at the provision of God that was delivered by our hands. I thought I had come to build a house...

...when in fact, I simply received a physical reminder of God's promise to me.

2 Timothy 1:12

King James Version (KJV)

 ¹²For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

And another verse.

Philippians 1:6

New International Version (NIV)

⁶ being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

God uses us as His provision. He does this not because he needs us, but because he knows that we need him. As we worked on the walls of that house, God worked on the foundations of our hearts. 

We are all beggars at the feet of God. He gives us all what we need.

I was not building a house... I was allowing God to forge the steel of my soul.

I picture God standing on the slab of my heart... with his box of tools, and I wonder, what will he build in me?

I am convicted by what I saw. And I am driven insane by how it makes me feel. How can we see such love, such hope in the face of so much reality... and not be moved?

I AM PERSUADED THAT HE IS ABLE.

Come and build home with me in November. Come and allow your heart to be shattered and rebuilt. See if you can go, and return home the same.

If you can't go... pray and see if God would have you give $100 to allow others to go in your sted. I personally guarantee you that your money will be well spent. If you don't think so, I will pay you back.

We need an additional $400 to get our team afloat. You can be that difference.

God doesn't need your hands and feet to be His provision... but He is willing to use them. Don't delay.

If He can not use you... He will use someone else.

Please...seize this moment. You will never regret it.