Life lessons from upholstery and King David

Last year we purchased a beautiful living room set from some missionaries who were transferring to another country.  At some point after the New Year, I decided to reupholster all the cushions.  And thus, began a journey of learning new things about upholstery and about myself.  I’ve watched several upholstery videos online at least a million times so that I’d be prepared for the work.  And along the way God has used such a simple thing (or maybe not so simple thing) as upholstery to help me reflect on some important truths.

{cushion 1 of 10, complete!}

The first week in September we were privileged to host a volunteer team from Westside Baptist Church in Gainesville, FL.  They helped us to teach English to a group of 50 young adults.  We challenged these young people from Jeremiah 1:4-8 to consider God’s call on their lives.  In addition to English classes, we had the amazing experience of learning together with 4 different churches about leadership qualities from the life of David.  Since they taught this leadership track 4 different times, we had lots of opportunities to really meditate on the truths in stories from David’s life.

{Westside Baptist Volunteers}

So here are a couple of truths that God has really driven home for me – from upholstery and from the life of David.  It’s amazing what they have in common.  😊

Truth #1:  The prep work for the real task is sometimes long and tedious, but always necessary.

 

To be able to get to the real sewing and assembly of the cushions I’m recovering, I had to work for hours on over 2000 inches of piping.  Because the fabric that Jay and I chose ravels easily, it was necessary to zigzag those same 2000 inches before I began using it.  Hours and hours of piping and zigzagging.  A necessary tedious task before the “real work” could begin.

When I think I how many years David spent tending sheep, I wonder at God’s choice of training for the future king.  Yet we see in scripture, including his psalms, that in his encounter with Goliath and throughout his reign, God used those years of sheep tending to prepare David for the throne.

For us as missionaries, there are so many ways that this applies to our lives including learning language so we can share truths from God’s Word.  Not many people just enjoy language learning.  But to communicate effectively, it’s necessary.  Learning Bible stories and saying them to yourself about 10 times a day can also become tedious, but being able to stand before a group and confidently recount the story in detail makes the preparation worthwhile.

{teaching English}  

Truth #2:  Listen to the squeaks – they tell you the machine needs cleaning.

At some point in the zigzagging of ravely piping, my sewing machine began to squeak.  A lot.  And loudly. Until it finally just no longer worked.  So in the end, I read the manual and inspected the machine carefully and discovered that the fabric had shed so much that the bobbin case was completely enclosed in dust.  I got the vacuum, cleaned it well and was back in business.

 

My squeaky machine made me think about King David’s encounter with his soldier Uriah after he had slept with Uriah’s wife.  The first night Uriah refused to returned to his home and slept before the palace doors.  And even though David got him drunk the second night, Uriah still refused to return home.  Uriah’s faithfulness to his comrades should have alerted David to his own sin and been a warning to the king.  But David didn’t heed this warning and continued down a destructive path.

 

There are times when, like my squeaky machine, the Holy Spirit pricks my conscience, and His Word shows areas in my life that I need to clean up.  If I’m not careful and sensitive to His leadership, I can be like David and miss warning signs that I’m headed in the wrong direction.

 

I’m so grateful for the Westside volunteer team whose teaching on the life of David allowed me to meditate on truths from his stories in God’s Word.  And for an amazing God who can use a simple sewing project to drive those truths home in my life.

 

Thank you all for praying as Jay and I continue to declare His mystery here in DRC.  Tomorrow morning we head to the interior of the country again for two weeks of church planter training.

    

Will you please pray for us in these ways:

• For careful preparation for the “real work” of teaching.
• For attention to promptings of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
• For safety in travel as we fly to another city where we’ll be for one week and then travel 11 hours by pirogue (dug-out canoe) to a village in the forest.
• For our training among the city dwellers and forest dwellers.  Our approach to training needs to be adjusted somewhat for the Pygmies who are 99% illiterate.