Lauren Lejeune

Becoming a homeowner has come with many successes, memories, laughter and challenges. As I enter year three on this journey, I’m beginning a new round of home renovations, starting with my annual repaint. Yes, the annual repaint of the interior of my home. I guess this is what happens when a young woman is set loose with no restrictions and an undeveloped frontal lobe, whose personal tastes have not fully developed and indecisiveness runs rampant. But I think I’ve finally landed on what I like — fingers crossed I won't have to live through this next year. 

The challenges part of the whole ordeal has also reared its ugly head, starting out the new year with a furnace that has stopped working. Last night, as I was finishing painting the living room and reorganizing, I noticed that it was unreasonably cold. It didn't take long to come up with some conclusions, the pilot light could be out, a mechanical issue, or the thing was junk and would need to be replaced. I really don’t want to do that.

Buying a new furnace and also planning a wedding are two things I am not interested in having in my 2025. I’m sure anyone could agree with that. But as Nate and I started making the phone calls to the appropriate adults in our lives, a small bit of panic began to sink into my stomach. 

So I decided to just start praying. I prayed for a quick and easy fix, or at least easy answers to the problem. I prayed that my anxiety towards the whole situation would be quenched and did my best to remind myself that ultimately it was in God’s hands and worrying wasn’t going to do me any good. 

And it's funny to me, how God can meet us right where we are at in our struggles. It didn’t take long before I had space heaters I could borrow from friends and work, extra blankets for the frigid night and the sense of dread I had begun to carry around with me had vanished. 

We have a family friend who does all things HVAC, and he was able to stop by and take a look at it. It’s still not up and running, but probably will be by the time this is published (I hope). Worries and problems seemingly had solutions to them in no time. 

I would not say that I have always gotten answers and solutions immediately after bringing my worries to God, but I do know that I am able to look back on my past struggles and I can see that God has always provided for me and brought me through whatever it was that I was facing in his own timing. I am so thankful for the people he has put in my life to lean on, who also happen to have vast wells of knowledge in most technical areas I seem to find myself lacking in (water lines, flat tires, furnaces, insurance, electrical … the list goes on). 

Most importantly, I’m continuously in awe of the God I serve, who is a waymaker in all things, who is beside me always in this walk of life. Sometimes it just takes your furnace crashing to remember that. I will be refraining from doing any premature furnace shopping, though.