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Home Connection | Lot's Wallpaper



Let’s pretend a minute. You’re visiting my new house and we’re having coffee. You ask, “Would you be ever so kind to tell me where the restroom is?” I say, “Absolutely, it would be my pleasure! Go down the hall and pick door number one OR door number two on the left.”


You’re puzzled until you do a little peek into door one and door two. Both are full bathrooms. Both are fully functional. Both are separated by one wall running between Thing
One and Thing Two. Scratching your head, you pick one.


When we moved in several months ago, that’s the method we went with, too. We scratched our heads at the random layout and then picked one. I organized everything, we settled into using the chosen as our main bathroom, envisioning the other room to, at some point, function as main floor laundry, thereby freeing up a basement room for my future office.


And then we went to switch the toilet. And instead of simply swapping out the oldest toilet we have ever had the pleasure of removing, we swapped bathrooms. Any new toilet, used in the chosen room would lend to having a face too close to the wall. And that’s just uncomfortable.


So, we traded rooms. And then I was stuck with mauve. Lots and lots and lots of it. On everything. And wallpaper. {Sometimes I think I need to hang wallpaper just so the next generation has the privilege of stripping it.}


And that’s where this edition of Home Connection lands. Wallpaper.


This isn’t my first wallpaper-stripping rodeo. But I tell you, the wallpaper in this house is the most stubborn, ridiculous...did I mention STUBBORN...stuff I have known. So as I whittle away with dime and quarter-sized success rates in my new bathroom, I’ve had lots of time to think and wonder…


HOW OFTEN AM I LIKE THIS SILLY WALLPAPER???


How often do I serve a purpose somewhere, only to continue clinging when it’s time to go?




Our family is in a season of transition right now. Maybe you are too? And I understand that to completely let go and face the unknown is, well, unknown. So, will I allow myself to be peeled off without a fight, or will I align myself with Lot and his wife, cling tightly, hold on stubbornly, and face the salty consequences? (you can read more about Lot and his wife in Genesis. I’m specifically talking about chapter 19 today.)


As I have prayed through and pondered my own season of transition, I was reminded of Lot’s story. I found myself asking:


“Am I like Lot’s wife?”


That can be a scary question. I remember being petrified to completely align myself with Job (read more HERE & HERE). But the more I read the WORD, the more I understand that yes...all the written rottenness serves a purpose...and if I am REALLY honest, I find myself in all kinds of Bible stories.


So I wasn’t afraid to ask it this time. God is good. And if the answer is “Yes, Malinda, you ARE like Lot’s wife right now” so be it. God is good. He will forgive me. He will help me. He will teach me and train me for righteousness. (see 2 Tim 3:16-17)
And man, am I FREE in that!


So again...in this particular transition, “AM I ACTING LIKE LOT’S WIFE?” Admittedly, in certain ways, I am. I feel stretched between obedience to God and wanting people to like me. Standing firm, or appeasing people. Have you ever felt that particular pull? Oh Lord, give us strength!


In Genesis 19, the main figure is Lot, not his wife or daughters…but to understand them, we must understand him. Lot had compromised with sin, moving himself and his family closer and closer to Sodom until he and his were not only living IN Sodom, but Lot was also part of the city’s leadership.


Through the faithful prayer of Abraham, God sent angels to rescue Lot and his family from Sodom, a city on track for utter destruction. We see how deeply embedded they are when Lot tries to give his unmarried daughters up to the mob. The visiting angels had to intervene with blindness to put a stop to the madness. The angels finally tell Lot what Sodom’s future is, and when Lot tries to explain the urgency of this to his future sons-in-law, he “seemed to be jesting.”


Lot’s compromise made him untrustworthy.


Night continued to press in. Then the angels, in the morning, once again urged Lot to get out. And yet, the Bible says, “But he lingered.” (wallpaper. yep.)


Lot’s stubbornness put his entire family at risk.


So listen to what happened next...It is written, “So the men (angels) seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.”


This is the part that really grabbed my attention. Even after everything, Lot refused to leave. He stuck to his wall like stubborn wallpaper...not giving more than small, dime-sized concession. So the angels seized him and physically brought him and the family outside of the city.


And even after that...after the angels told Lot to go to the hills “lest you be swept away”...Lot ARGUED. “Oh, no, my lords….let me flee instead to that nearby city. It’s little.”


Lot’s compromise marks his family.


And then Lot’s wife disregards instructions as well. I don’t know what she was thinking. Perhaps she was simply following her husband’s compromising lead. Perhaps she just wanted to see if the destruction was real. Whatever her motive, she looked back. And that was her end. She turned to a pillar of salt.


The story doesn’t end there. Lot’s daughters were also affected by compromise and sin. And they committed incest with Lot. And both had babies. And those babies became fathers of enemies of Israel.


Sad tale.


To simplify this, I don’t want to be like Lot OR his wife OR his daughters. I want to make choices of obedience even when it’s hard. Even when people don’t understand. Even when others are disappointed in me. I never want to compromise when it comes to the Word.


This quote from A.W. Tozer is apt in my current season, and maybe it is in your’s too:

“I claim the holy right to disappoint men in order to avoid disappointing God.”


May I...may we...avoid the trap of compromise, stand on His truth (leaning not on our own understanding) and be peel-able, not in dime-sized stubbornness, but in sizable, WILLING chunks!



Comments

  1. Wow, lovely object lesson! I appreciated your creative analogy. Glad to be stopping by here! Blessings!

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    1. Thanks for stopping by Bonnie! Blessings to you as well!

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