Today was an anniversary. { No, not our wedding anniversary} Tonight my husband planned a special date complete with childcare, lovely meal at coastal kitchen followed by desert and coffee at my favorite spot- Wake up. Valentines was the reason. During conversation we realized this date was horrific last year. Amazingly we spoke of what had changed in our hearts as a result of this event. Romans 6:36 rings true, all things work together for good for those who love Jesus.
Grab your coffee and let me tell you a story:
This date last year our home was ransacked - robbed
- broken into, and beyond. It was a few days before Valentines, and Shannon was
gone to church to lead worship that evening - being the “Rachel Ray” that I am,
I wanted to cook a special Valentines Dinner. I fed the kids, gave them both a
speed bath, put on their PJs, loaded everybody up, and headed to Harris Teeter
to buy some special dinner items. I quickly grabbed the items. I was gone for
approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes. Apparently, that’s plenty long enough for a
team of thieves to come in and tear apart my home.
Having returned home with two little ones, I opened
the front door and gasped - what I saw was horrifying. Décor ripped from the
wall, couches turned upside down - EVERYTHING was EVERYWHERE. Kenimer said
“Mommy, someone made a mess in our house”. Having left my cell phone at
the house (of course it was stolen), the house phone was sitting by the door. I
grabbed it quickly, while trying to hold tightly to my screaming kids, stepping
back onto the porch. One of our most trusted neighbors and an old family friend
passed by walking his dog, so I turned and started to cry while telling him that
I thought someone was in our home (I haven’t yet mentioned that I heard movement
in the back room). He calmly grabbed my children and took them to his house (his
daughter happens to be the best babysitter on the planet) while I called 911, my
husband (Shannon), my parents, etc. Our neighbor came back with some hot coffee
while I waited for the Police, and he walked in to check out the house,
returning to announce that it had been cleanly swept through. When all the
reports came in, it appears as though the criminals fled from the rear when I
opened the front door, judging from the mess there were probably at least 6 of
them, and they were primarily after electronics.
My husband and I were about half-way done with a
worship c.d. we had been writing for the last few years, so we had some
electronics to be stolen.
I called Shannon again to warn him that all of his
recording equipment and musical gear had most likely been stolen. When he
arrived at home (following a near-revival worship night at Youth Group) he
looked slightly sick, realizing the hard drive holding over half of our album
was GONE. Nausea set in as we thought of how much hard work had just walked away
with a bunch of thieves...not to mention family pics, wedding photos, and
etc.
The thieves were never caught, but - after prayer -
our hard drive was found - the thieves had tried to pull it off the studio desk
but had gotten dropped elsewhere. Yet, as if that weren’t enough, almost
immediately after the break in we discovered water damage in the wall and a
severe carpenter ant problem. When it rains it pours, I suppose.
The days that following were filled with plans for
tightening up security.
We were busy bees - dead bolting doors, putting
curtains and shades on every window, and shopping for alarm systems (which we
now have). We grieved our losses and proceeded to move forward, and as we
learned some practical lessons about home security, and I learned some heart
lessons as well.
Now I feel as though God had been whispering to me,
“Hey, you know how your house was not as secure as it could have been? You
know how this theft shook y’all up? Could it be that your heart is not as
guarded as it should be? How many of your thoughts are dominated by lies you
have entertained. Sometimes there is a barely room in your thoughts for
truth.”
“Guard your heart above all else, for it is the
source of life” - Proverbs 4:23
“...take every thought captive to obey
Christ...” - 2 Corinthians 10:5b
The heart and the mind are so tightly intertwined
one could say that they are one and the same, for what we make room for in our
heads, moves our hearts, and what we care for and about, effects how we
think.
Just like I needed to better secure my home, so I
even more greatly need to secure my mind and heart - my soul. God wants to
dwell in me, but it needs to be a safe place.
That theft brought about physcial changes that contributed to the greater safety of my home- hence the dead bolts, alarm systems etc. That theft led me to dig deeper into my heart to explore the degree of truth I was listening to- I sorted out where my thinking was tainted with lies. I learned how to have authentic relationships, I learned that Jesus wants a secure place to reside- he wants a heart free from unhealthy thinking.
I am thankful for the theft.
Lesson learned.