Busy with Your Own House

Eighteen years after the exiles began to rebuild the temple, it still lay in ruins. After an initial burst of movement, they hit a wall. A wave of resistance made them abandon the house, lose the vision, and settle for a decade of distraction.

They tried out a life of leaving God's call by the wayside, and it only left them empty.

“‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.’ Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, ‘Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.’” (Haggai 1:2-6)

When we place personal improvement above the Lord, life becomes a perpetual exercise of patching holes. When one part is mended, another rips. When one section of the home is cleared, another clutters. When one issue is fixed, another appears.

"Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways ..." (Haggai 1:7)

Without divine interruption, we will go twenty years working on the same things the same way, believing that we're just one hole away from a seamless life.

The Lord would have us reconsider. Is the problem the hole? Or is the problem the priority? What if you put your heart elsewhere? What if you turned your eyes upward? What if, instead of patching holes yourself, you went first to the Lord?

“Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.” (Haggai 1:8-9)

As long as the greater calling is delayed, the busyness we use to distract and avoid only decays the soul.

“Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God …” (Haggai 1:12)

Watch how many patches care for themselves when the deeper things take the firstfruits of your attention. As your focus shifts, you find new clothes to sew. You fade out of an obsession with your own fabric, and in the Spirit, you come alive with new dreams for good.

“Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord's message, ‘I am with you, declares the Lord.’ And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people.” (Haggai 1:13)

As soon as we turn, we are stirred. At last, we find healing, not in patching our own holes, but in placing ourselves in the hands that were pierced. In a moment, our horde of problems are covered with the Presence. And over time, we move out of a restless life of personal fixing and into the rest of divine favor.

Take your hands off the endless tinkering and go at once to the better Builder of your soul.