i will always show you where to go

It's been hard.  It's been tiring.  It's been frustrating.  It's been lonely.  It's been amazing.

Somedays I didn't know where to start, what to do next, who to call, how to ask, or where to even sleep.  But WOW, what a crazy journey this past SEVENTEEN months has been.  I laugh when I think about how optimistic I was in September of 2014 - "Oh, I'll be in by Christmas."  NOT

One of those long, hot, difficult days back in the spring of last year, I was tearing down a wall and trying to wrap my head around what all it was going to take to get this mountain moved.  I was in the front bathroom, with no walls, with no floor, and the Lord said to me "get rid of all of it.  I am going to make everything brand new."  In my mind, I was trying to salvage anything I could so it would help with the cost, but the more I moved forward, the more the Lord showed me that everything in there was rotten and old and needed to be replaced.

Mountain Move. He makes ALL things new.

Today I stood in that same bathroom and marveled at what it looks like now.  Everything in there is new.  New walls.  New floors.  New bathtub.  New sink.  New counters. New cabinets.  New toilet.

He took the old, and made it new.

 “If you get rid of unfair practices,
    quit blaming victims,
    quit gossiping about other people’s sins,
If you are generous with the hungry
    and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
    your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
I will always show you where to go.
    I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—
    firm muscles, strong bones.
You’ll be like a well-watered garden,
    a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
    rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You’ll be known as those who can fix anything,
    restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
    make the community livable again."
Isaiah 58:9-12

I want to brag on one of my boys.  He is 18, was in school at Lanier, but didn't have enough credits to graduate.  Most boys that are in this situation end up dropping out, which is what he was considering doing.  Instead, he researched all on his own and was accepted into MS Job Corps.  He withdrew from JPS and has been in Crystal Springs since early February.  He's working on completing the credits he needs to get his high school diploma, and has started taking classes to get his welding trade.  When he finishes in September, he will have accomplished so much, and will be able to get a job and have a career.

I have been trying to get him home for the weekends, or we go down and see him on Saturdays.  Last Sunday as we were headed to take him back, we stopped to eat at Cracker Barrel, of which he had never been to before.  That's always fun to take the kids to a new place (that most of us have eaten at before many times), and what do they end up getting .........  a burger.  Everywhere. Getting them to try something different is almost as difficult as restoring a house.

I had given him some money when I dropped him off.  He is able to go to Walmart during the week to get things he needs, and the occasional trip to McDonald's.  He had worked some and earned his own money too.  Monday morning he called me at 7:30 and was very upset because someone had stolen his money while he was in the shower.  The only thing he knew to do was respond the way he has always responded.....with anger and aggression.  I was able to calm him down, speak truth to him, and be the voice of reason in the midst of a tough time.  God's great favor on him abounded that morning.  There's more to the story, but just know that by the end of the day God provided money to me that I was able to share with him.  I drove back to Crystal Springs and gave it to him, using that as a tangible way to show him that when we honor God by our actions and our responses, God honors us by giving back what the enemy stole from us.

Considering where he has come from, that was a huge victory that day.  The Lord is tearing down so many old, burned out, broken, rotten, and dirty things from his heart, and making him brand new.  What an honor I got to be the one he called that morning, and what an honor I got to be the one to show Jesus to him that evening.  

Jesus keeps telling me over, and over, and over (when I don't think I can answer one more call or text, or buy one more burger, or stop one more argument, or clean my car one more time.....)

"You take care of them, and I'll take care of you."

and that, He keeps doing.