decreasing the gap

When we were in our early twenties, Kelsey and I bought our first house. I've blogged about it before, but in case you don't remember....does the word ramshackle stir up any recollection? To be fair, it was a cute little house, but it needed work, and what we knew about those sorts of projects could have fit on a half page, fourteen point font, double spaced. We drove by it a few months ago and I was tempted to go to the door and apologize to the current owner for the mangled job on the hardwood in the dining room.

The house had some issues that we just couldn't do much about - particularly, assorted gaps. Gaps around the windows. Gaps at the bottom, top and sides of most doors. The way things had settled, there wasn't a right angle to be found...just lots of space between where things should have been and where they ended up.

I'm reading the prophet, Isaiah this morning. He records the word of the Lord in this way in chapter 42, verses 8 & 9:

I am the Lord, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved images. Behold, the former things have come to pass, And new things I declare; Before they spring forth I tell you of them."

As I read the passage this morning, it occured to me how blurry the borders are between recorded history and His prophetic word. God mixes language of the old passing away and new things being declared as if He were in full control...and for good reason. He is constantly moving back and forth between relaying things that have happened and things that will - and they're all the same to Him.

I'm disturbed by the gaps in my life this morning. The space between what He's spoken over me and the way things are right now. Sometimes being stuck in time can be a peculiar form of torture. You know what you've heard and you see what you see - and they're not exactly lined up straight and true. Through the gap between calling and walk blows a wind so cold that it can bring all activity to a halt if you don't keep the fire stoked.

Gotta stoke the fire. And I've gotta close those gaps.