Why We Didn’t Unpack Tonight

When we arrived back at the cabin about 10:30 PM after twelve hours on the road, we found all the furniture piled in the middle of the living room. A large plate glass window had been replaced with plywood, and most of the electrical outlets had been taken out of the walls. This wasn’t a surprise to us because we live in a log cabin and Alan told us several weeks ago that some of the logs had become rotten because of exposure to standing water. Replacing those logs has turned into a big job. The logs themselves are being milled in Texas and shipped to Tupelo. Alan thought the work would be completed while we were gone, but the logs haven’t even arrived yet. The contractor is renting some sort of expensive jack that will lift up one side of the cabin while the logs are being replaced. One of the logs is 75 feet long so we’re talking about a major bit of renovation.
We knew that things would be a bit out of place when we returned, but it’s still startling to come home late in the evening and find things in total disarray. After a bit of discussion, we decided to spend the night at the cabin and move to Alan’s home in town tomorrow morning. So we didn’t bother unpacking. When we went to bed, Marlene reminded me that this was part of the “asymmetric spiritual warfare” I was preaching about a few days ago. She’s right, of course. It’s not always the big stuff. Sometimes it’s just seeing everything piled in a heap, even when you knew it was going to happen, that throws you for a loop.