Old Doors, New Doors

It's been a full couple of weeks around the homestead. First, the election. Goes without saying. Last weekend I traveled to sweet Chicago to celebrate Miss M's birthday. This weekend it's off to Milwaukee to perform with the dance company. Ahhh, must keep busy so that the arrival of the cold doesn't depress me too early on!

In addition, Paul and I have been wrapping up a little project around the house. We've been finishing and hanging new interior doors. Whew, I'm happy to say we are almost there. And I'd like to take the opportunity to tell you the story about these aforementioned doors.

Now, if you know me much at all, you know I'm grounded in good, practical Lutheran theology. You'd be hard-pressed to recall me saying that God just willed my stellar parking spot or some similar conviction. But I do believe most certainly in the immense and mysterious power of the Holy Spirit, and give credit when it is due. This is one of those stories.

Just over a year ago now (before the housing market collapsed), Paul and I were discussing seriously the possibility of selling our condo and buying a single family home. We love our condo, but the idea of losing condo fees and gaining a garage and garden space...very tempting. So, one Saturday afternoon, we were checking out a couple of open houses just for kicks. As we drove from house to house, we pondered lots of what-ifs. Where would God have us right now? If we moved, it would mean this... and if we stayed, what would we still do to improve the condo? Highest on the list were new interior doors, redoing the kitchen and fixing up the bathroom tiles.

Literally, we're having this discussion, and we drive past some brand new doors leaning up against a tree with a sign reading "free doors." We check them out, determine them quite worthy, and quickly grab the sign and rush home to exchange the car for the jeep so we can go back to pick them up. When Paul got back to the doors, he realized that there were six - the same number of interior doors as in our condo. Then, he walked over to a bag of books, sitting out with other miscellaneous giveaways. The books contained a pile of books on theology, and sitting right on top - a book on the life and theology of Martin Luther. Hello, message heard loud and clear.

So we've stayed in the condo (because if the door message wasn't convincing enough, the market certainly has been). And we've finally completed the door project - and by "we" I mean mostly Paul, who deserves the credit. And somewhere in heaven, Marty and my Pops are drinking a good German beer and nodding with pleasure over the fact that we not only got the message that we're meant to stay for a while, we managed to be pretty handy woodworkers when it was all said and done as well.