Day 128 - Nested Babushka (Throw) and Open House Disappointment

The best boss I ever worked for, Pastor Mark, brought this back for me from his trip to Russia years ago.  (No offense intended to current or other past bosses!) 

The kids always thought these things were toys ... and you can't blame them.  And over the years, several pieces have been lost.  Dats (age 9) feels personally responsible for permanently separating the nesters by dropping one down a furnace vent. 

Oh well, now I'm tossing all of it, so he need not feel guilty about it any longer.

In other news...

Yesterday was our Open House.  We spent all of our spring break week getting the house ready to go.

And nobody showed up. Not one.

But it wasn't a complete loss - I got a nap.  And there's nothing better than a Sunday afternoon nap. (Except maybe selling your house.)

Some of the small group guys had come over after church to pray for the quick sale of our house, but it wasn't to be.  Not yet.

To say that Melissa was bummed out would be an understatement.  In the shock of ZERO people showing up, she began to (briefly) question the validity of our call to Haiti.

But I look at it this way:  If you are on the right path, it doesn't guarantee that everything is going to fall into place quickly and easily and in your time frame.  What comes to my mind is all the trouble the Apostle Paul encountered trying to follow God's call.  He had one of the clearest calls in all of church history and yet he experienced one after another of the things none of us would want to go through: 

"23 I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. ²⁴ Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. ²⁵ Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, ²⁶ I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. ²⁷ I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked." (2 Cor 11)

All of this while walking in the path God ordained for him!

So I'm not going to get too bent out of shape if my house doesn't immediately sell the first time we open the doors.  It could be worse, right?

And what was Paul's conclusion after relating all this hardship? 

"If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness."