Sword in the Fire

It’s that time of year again.  Tomorrow, my wife and I will help gather supplies into a well-worn book bag, and shuffle our eldest out the door to a new school.  Then one week later, the little ones will be ushered out of the house with notebooks, pencils, and a bagged lunch in hand.  School days, I love them.  For me, they bring up great memories, full of excitement at the newness waiting for me inside those classroom doors.  I think I could spend the rest of my life as a student, if it was only feasible to the wallet and the mortgage.  ....check out the rest at the Sounding.

I am a horrible project planner--at least at home.  A couple years ago we had the idea to build a closet in some empty space over the garage.  It was my wife's idea and a great one.   It's been 2 years and it may be finished in a month.  About a day into the project I knew I was in over my head. 2 years later we hired a contractor to finish it but after the basic work and finishing touches it has been a lot more complicated and a lot more costly than we originally anticipated. Thinking through this, I remembered Jesus' teaching about counting the cost.  His example for this admonition is a man who builds with no plan or thought to the cost of finishing.  King of describes my approach to home improvement.   Luke 14:25-33 “If one of you wanted to build a tower, wouldn’t you first sit down and calculate the cost, to determine whether you have enough money to complete it?   29   Otherwise, when you have laid the foundation but couldn’t...