This week has been a lot. We spent Monday in a hospital while my father-in-law received donor lungs. How incredible is that? {but also, why is sitting and waiting the most exhausting thing on the actual planet??}. We drove home late, so kiddos could head back to school. My mother-in-law came to stay for a few days, car shopping, my house had to be speed cleaned for small group, because we had left for the hospital in the middle of a gusto of Marie Kondo-ing. 🙄 Brad had an out of town work trip and I started a pretty awesome, but intense mural. Hello Tuesday.
About an hour before our small group showed up, I looked around, so proud of how much we had managed to tackle, when my eyes screeched to a halt—on my mantle, beautifully decorated for Valentine’s. Four days AFTER the love day. I didn’t have it in me. I was so tired. So done. My son saw my shoulders slump. He asked what’s wrong. I pointed. Defeated. He thought a minute then came up with this plan. Hang a blanket. Under construction.
And just like that, the most accurate label of my life was scratched out on a piece of paper and tragically thumb tacked to the ceiling. I didn’t even try to use the pretty handwriting, although that would have more accurately captured so many years of my life: trying to hide what was really going on behind the mask of of pretty letters.
This time I covered up what was going on with humor. In that moment, Asher reminded me of what I actually like best about me: I can laugh at myself. I love that when my inner critic demanded that I keep going, keep killing myself to be perfect, he gave me the freedom to be under construction. And to make it funny. What a special gift! The gift to put myself under a label that declared freedom—freedom from perfection. Freedom from guilt. Freedom from the pressure to meet expectations, even when they are my own.
Under construction: that label is one I will gladly accept. When our people showed up, everyone laughed. Which is gas for my empty tank. The blanket came down half way through bible study. It blocked the light people needed to see God’s word. Guess what? I am the only one who cared that my mantel was outdated. People don’t come here for that. They come here for friendship, authentic community, and to have a space where they are also free to be under construction. I’ll pick that over a magazine cover house any day.
So....what in your life needs the grace blanket and “under construction” sign? Where do you just need to let expectations down, and laugh it off? I bet you the people in your life will sigh with HUGE relief that you opened that level of transparency in your friendships. 🙌🏼
This! FREEEEDOM! So much under construction in me! At my best I walk into Jesus’ workshop and say “what are we working on today?” I am his apprentice in this process. He, too, is an artist like you!