The spreadsheet ended at the keys.
Not because anybody decided that. It ended there because that was where the information ended. Everything up to that point had a number attached to it, published by somebody, findable, checkable. Everything after it was fog.
So the plan went as far as the fog and stopped, and the two of you looked at the plan and it looked complete, because a plan that goes all the way to its own horizon looks exactly like a plan that goes all the way.
You worked hard on it. That is the part I do not want to lose. There were months of work in that document and it was good work and it got you a house.
And it covered one day.
The buying, which happened on a Thursday, in about four hours, and the whole thing after it, which is the actual house and the actual life and everything from now until whenever, had one line in it that said something optimistic about maintenance.
Why the plan stopped where it stopped
Let me be fair to the two of you, because I suspect there has been some quiet blame in this house since the autumn and it is not deserved.
The plan stopped at the keys because the buying is the part that is documented.
There is an entire industry attached to that day. Everything about it is priced and listed and available, and if you go looking you will find it.
There is no equivalent for the keeping. Nobody publishes what a house costs to be lived in, because it varies, and because the people who know are the people who have found out, and none of them wrote it down.
You have planned the part that could be planned, and a fog with no numbers in it has never once been a thing anybody could have budgeted for. The Holy Spirit is the one who put the building and the establishing in two separate clauses, and it is written in Proverbs 24 that through wisdom is an house builded, and by understanding it is established.
And now let me name the quiet blame, because it will go on costing you if it stays unnamed.
One of you was the spreadsheet person. In most houses there is one. And when the autumn arrived and the costs started, something began in that person that has not been said out loud, and it is a version of: I should have seen it.
The other one has said nothing about it, which is kind, and which the first one has been reading as restraint.
You have two people carrying an unspoken charge and neither of them has said a word, and a plan that stopped where the information stopped has never once been a failure by anybody. Proverbs 24 separates the building from the establishing on purpose, and the Spirit of God is the one who knew they were different works.
Through wisdom is an house builded
Here is the passage, and the three verbs in it are the whole thing.
Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established: and by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches. (Proverbs 24:3, King James Version)
Builded. Established. Filled.
Three separate operations, in order, and they are not the same work and they do not happen at the same time.
Building is the getting of it. Establishing is the making of it stand, which happens afterward, over years, and is the work now in progress at this address. Filling is what comes later still.
So the passage itself assumes that getting the house is the first of three and not the whole of it.
You are in the second work rather than failing at the first, and establishing a house has never once been something that could have been done in advance of having one. The Holy Spirit is the one who ordered them that way, and the written word puts the building and the establishing in separate clauses with separate means.
And notice the means, because they are different too.
Wisdom builds it. Understanding establishes it. Knowledge fills it. Whoever wrote that was making a point about the fact that a different thing is required at each stage, and that the thing that got you the house is not the thing that will keep it.
Which means the two of you are not deficient. You are between stages, and the skill the second stage requires is one nobody has ever had in advance.
You have the first work behind you and the second one in front of you, and nobody anywhere has ever once arrived at the second with the skill already in hand. Proverbs 24 gives each stage its own means, and the Spirit of God is the one who supplies what the stage in front of you needs.
So here is what I believe is going out over two people who have not looked at that document since the autumn.
You have planned one day out of a lifetime, and stopping the plan at the keys has never once been the same as failing to plan. Proverbs 24 says through wisdom is an house builded and by understanding it is established, and it is the Holy Spirit and not my saying so who put those in two clauses.
I am not going to hand you a better spreadsheet. The fog is still fog and nobody has the numbers, and a document that pretended otherwise would fail you by February.
You have been carrying a charge that nobody made, and a quiet autumn in a house has never once been the same as a thing having been said. The written word gives each stage its own means and assumes they arrive in order, and the Spirit of God is the one supplying the second.
You are in the establishing, and the establishing has never once been a thing a person could have done before they had the house. Proverbs 24 names three works and puts them in sequence, and the Holy Spirit is the one who set the order.
And this, which is the word I came with:
You did the first work well and it got you here, and no plan anywhere has ever once been able to see past the last published number. It is written that by understanding it is established, and the Spirit of God is with the two of you in the second year.
Declare this over yourself
- Charge that somebody should have seen it, nobody in this house ever made you out loud, and we planned the buying because the buying was the part with numbers on it. Proverbs 24 says through wisdom is an house builded and by understanding it is established, so by the Holy Spirit I end you in the name of Jesus.
- Silence since the autumn, you are louder than anything either of us has said about the keeping. The written word gives the building and the establishing different means, and by the Holy Spirit we write one line about the year and we read it out loud once.
- Father, You named three works and You put them in an order, and You never asked for the second one to be done before the first. Your word says by understanding it is established, so by Your Spirit we stop treating a stopped plan as a failure.
Proverbs 24:3
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