Not much has happened on the remodel project this week. Actually, nothing has happened except we’ve been slowly filling up the space we have allocated for storage. It rained nearly every day this week (and we got frozen stuff a couple of times) so it’s not ideal for construction. I did learn that our downspouts are tied into our sewer line, so heavy rain backs up the toilet and tub in the main house. As you can imagine, we haven’t enjoyed dirty water spewing our of the tub when we flush the toilet.
I haven’t spoken much about our church in the last year. There’s been a lot of drama and intrigue, so I haven’t wanted to feed it. It’s helpful to remember Augustine’s The City of God:
But let this city bear in mind, that among her enemies lie hid those who are destined to be fellow-citizens, that she may not think it a fruitless labor to bear what they inflict as enemies until they become confessors of the faith. So, too, as long as she is a stranger in the world, the city of God has in her communion, and bound to her by the sacraments, some who shall not eternally dwell in the lot of the saints. Of these, some are not now recognized; others declare themselves, and do not hesitate to make common cause with our enemies in murmuring against God, whose sacramental badge they wear. These men you may today see thronging the churches with us, tomorrow crowding the theaters with the godless. But we have the less reason to despair of the reclamation even of such persons, if among our most declared enemies there are now some, unknown to themselves, who are destined to become our friends. In truth, these two cities are entangled together in this world, and intermixed until the last judgment effect their separation.
According to Augustine, there’s no easy way to separate the evil from the righteous. So it’s just as well that the last judgement belongs to God alone—a humbling realization and not always comfortable. In our social media world some deal with this ambiguity by dividing people into categories based on social signals. Even better when people self-sort by expressing an opinion on this or the other political concern. But this is false wisdom and idolatry.
And so I wait for revival that comes only from the Holy Spirit.