There is something in me that has developed recently. I don't think I have always been like this. I love to look at old things and think about what they were like in their prime or what they could be if they were restored. I have always been into finding potential...potential in people, potential in activities, in plans etc. I think that it has to do a lot with my maximizer strength. Things might be good but I want to find a way to make them great. I do this in relationships and in plans that I make. However, now I find myself doing it more with old homes, places, pieces of furniture.
Last year I was invited into a secret. There is an abandoned house on campus and it had a huge open yard, a beautiful tree covered drive way, a garage and out building. It looked like it would have been absolutely incredible during its prime. It is off on a part of campus that most people do not even know the school owns. More recently I came to know that there were 3 houses all in that same area that were all abandoned and the university owned them all. That yard became and escape for me. I was a way for me to retreat from campus. I didn't have to drive, I could be outside, it was beautiful, it was my little piece of heaven. There were times when I would bring my quilt, my homework, and other times when Katie and I would just go sit on the porch and talk till the sun went down. I would dream about what it would be like to fix the house up and one day live there. My most recent dream was to fix it up and live in it with 6 other ladies for my senior year. Just this week Mary and I had a few minutes to spare and wanted to soak up the weather so to that lawn we went. I was laying in the sunshine thanking Jesus for such a beautiful spot.
Here is Mary doing homework on the lawn on a beautiful fall afternoon.
Tonight my world was rocked. Ben and I were having dinner and he asked if I wanted to stop by the abandoned house (I swear it is not as creepy as it sounds). I said of course! As we drove past my hand covered my mouth and I gasped. Gone. The two smaller houses were leveled and the main house was all torn up. Definitely dream crushing. The yard is now filled with tire tracks. Broken glass and gutters cover the yard around the house. Ben had seen it earlier in the week and knew I would want to know.
There use to be houses here
Thankfully Ben had the great idea and asked if I would want a brick or a piece of wood from the house. For sure I did. So I picked a brick and some wood that I want to paint inspirational things on. So look out for that. Change is hard.
On another note there was a place I visited this summer that I never blogged about. It was an old insane asylum and had been abandoned for years. However, recently someone had caught a vision. They were turning it in to a whole community. The were creating incredible apartments with stunning hardwood floors, crazy cool spaces, and exposed brick and stone. They are getting cute stores and restaurants to move in etc. It was like a college campus but no college part. Talk about a dream! How awesome would it be to move here with a bunch of friends and live in close community? You just have to get over the fact that crazies use to walk the halls.
Ultimately I think I am drawn to these things because Christ is drawn to these kinds of things. He takes us, old, worn down, gross, weird pasts included..and makes us new. He repurposes our lives. He makes beautiful things out of us (as some songs might say). I feel so lucky to have a God with a crazy creative mind who pursues us and never stops working on renewing us.
