It Sat In The Garage For Two Years

It has been under a sheet since the spring before last.

You finished it. That is the part worth stating plainly, because it is easy to lose. It is not half done and it is not waiting on anything. It has been finished for two years.

And you have gone out there and taken the sheet off and looked at it more times than you would admit.

And every time, the same thing happens. You stand there and you look at it and you think, yes, that came out well. And then a second thought arrives, and the second thought is the one that puts the sheet back on.

It is not that good.

Or: he will not know what to do with it. Or: it will sit in his hallway and he will feel obliged. Or the one underneath all of those, which is that handing over something you made with your own hands and then watching a face is more exposure than a man of your age has any interest in.

So it is still out there. Two springs now.

There is a psalm that ends with a request about the work of hands, and the man praying it says it twice.

Establish thou the work of our hands

Here it is.

And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. (Psalm 90:17, King James Version)

He asks for it twice in one verse.

Establish thou the work of our hands upon us. And then again, with the words turned round: the work of our hands establish thou it.

A man does not say a thing twice in a single sentence unless it matters to him a great deal.

You have work that somebody thought worth praying for twice, and Psalm 90:17 repeats the request rather than mentioning it once and moving on. The Holy Spirit is the one who left the repetition in the psalm, and He left it in because that is how it was actually said.

Now the word establish, which is where the whole thing turns.

Establish means set firm, make it stand, give it a permanence beyond the person who made it. It is a word about a thing continuing.

And nothing under a sheet is being established. A thing under a sheet is in exactly the same condition it was in two years ago, and it will be in that condition in five more.

You have been keeping something in a state where the prayer cannot touch it, and it is written that the work of our hands is to be established rather than preserved. The Spirit of God is the one who does the establishing, and He does it to things that are out in the world rather than to things that are covered.

And notice where the establishing happens. Upon us. Not in a workshop. In the lives of people.

The prayer is that a man's work would stand among people, be used, be somewhere, mean something to somebody who did not make it.

You have been holding back the only part where it could actually stand, and His word puts the establishing upon us rather than in the place it was made. The Holy Spirit is the one who takes a thing out of a garage, and He usually does it through the man who is standing in it.

What two years under a sheet is

Now let me name what has actually been happening, and it will not be comfortable but it is not a rebuke either.

The sheet is not protecting the thing. The thing does not need protecting. It is finished and it is fine and it has been fine since the spring before last.

The sheet is protecting you.

You have been covering yourself rather than the work, and it is written that the establishing happens upon people rather than under anything. The Spirit of God is the one who tells a man what a covering is for, and He tells it without contempt because it is a very ordinary thing to want.

And here is what the exposure actually consists of, since it is worth looking at directly.

A bought thing can be judged and the judgment lands on the thing. A made thing is different. When somebody looks at it, they are looking at a set of decisions a man made over many hours, and every one of those decisions is his.

That is real exposure and it is right to feel it. Nobody here is going to tell you it is imaginary.

You are not wrong about what it costs, and Scripture asks God to establish it rather than promising anybody that it is easy. The Holy Spirit is the one who does not require a man to pretend about the cost of something.

And here is the arithmetic that finally matters.

Two years of that thing standing in a hallway, being used, being sat on, being mentioned when somebody asks about it, against two years of it under a sheet in a garage where nobody has ever seen it.

That is the actual trade, and it has been running the whole time.

You have been paying two years to avoid about four seconds, and it is written that the work of our hands is to be established upon us. The Spirit of God is the one who puts the whole ledger in front of a man, and He put it there rather than arguing about it.

Carry it in

So here is what to do, and it is one trip.

Take the sheet off and put it in the truck and drive it over and carry it in. This week.

Not when it feels right. It has not felt right for two years and there is no evidence anywhere that it is going to start.

You are able to do it before it feels right, and Psalm 90:17 asks for the establishing rather than for the maker to be comfortable. The Holy Spirit is the one who gets a man out to a garage with his keys in his hand, and the keys in the hand is most of it.

And say almost nothing when you get there.

Do not talk it down on the way in. Do not say it is nothing much. Do not say it was going to be thrown out, which is the specific lie men of that age tell at exactly that moment and it fools nobody.

Set it down. Say, I made this for you. That is the whole script and it is five words.

You have five words and no more required, and it is written that the work of our hands is established by God rather than introduced by the man. The Spirit of God is the one who carries a thing the last few feet, and He does not need any help with the wording.

And then let the four seconds be four seconds.

Something will happen in a face. It may be the good version and it may be the surprised version and either way it is four seconds long and then somebody will say something and it will be over.

You have four seconds to get through and nothing beyond them, and the written word asks twice for the work to stand rather than once for it to be admired. The Holy Spirit is the one who is in those four seconds, and He has been waiting two years to be in them.