Let me start by saying that I am not a carpenter. I like to do a little tinkering around the house and home improvement projects, but I don’t think that quite qualifies me to be called a carpenter. I have also built two houses. One house in Arkansas was from the slab up and the one in Lequire was framed and put in the dry by some professionals.

For the house in Arkansas I had a group of professionals come in and put up sheetrock. The house in Lequire I put up the sheetrock with a friend and his grandson. We didn’t do a bad job, but it was a lot of work and did have a couple of rough spots. But, but overall it came out pretty well. But not good enough for me to be considered a carpenter.

I say all of this as a preface because the fixer upper house in Copan has to have some sheetrock work done (particularly one spot in the hall where someone fell through the ceiling!). The two bathrooms were completely gutted and reconfigured. New walls had to be framed. And it was totally rewired. The walls all had to have sheetrock put up.

Soooo, with that fact now obvious, I purchased the rock (short for sheetrock), waterproof (green) and regular (white) for the walls and ceilings. I began in the bigger bathroom. It was more of a rectangle and easier to work in. For some reason what my tape measure showed and what I cut did not seem to ever match.

I guess I was too cautious. It seems every piece I cut was too long. Then I re-measured and re-cut, got some help to lift to the ceiling and then it was too short! What??? Got to the walls next and thought that I am not going to repeat this again. And guess what? Yep, I did the same thing again.

I went to the main bathroom and had my wife and brother help me with that project. It went a little smoother. EXCEPT, I forgot to put my measurements from the top to bottom, and they were off about an inch to one half an inch. One piece I cut completely backwards. Our last piece had the vanity sink drain and two water lines to cut. I let my brother handle that one. He made me feel so good as his measurements, short and off an inch to half inch!

Then there were the lights and electrical plugs to cut around. I have this handy little tool called a Roto-Zip. It is like a hand router with a drill bit that cuts through sheetrock as a hot knife through butter. I bought a new bit so things would cut very easily.

The problem was on one light over the vanity I forgot to mark the location and couldn’t find it. So I had to guess its location. I thought I found it…twice! On the third try I located it. On a couple of the plugs the tool got away from me and zigged when it should have zagged. It made a little bit of a mess.

So long story short is this, I am not a carpenter, and I’m too ashamed to call someone to come in and fix my mess. With that, I can say that I am not a carpenter or a sheetrock hanger, but I can do sheetrock finish. I had a lady in a church I pastored several years ago teach me.

With that knowledge, off to work I went with my paper tape and a five lb. bucket of sheetrock mud. It took some time, a lot of work and a lot of mud. But the finished project was quite amazing. It covered up quite nice and looks like a bathroom. Project completed.

As I finished, I stood back beholding my work and thought what a transformation had just occurred. Something that was ragged, ill-fitting, filled with a couple of extra holes, and not very pleasing to look at was now finished at the joints (and some rather wide joints) with paper tape and mud, holes, now patched, and ragged places smoothed, and looked like a wall.

All it took was the right equipment, material and the knowledge to fix it.

It reminded me of what Jesus does for us. We live our lives, hack it together as best as we can and just seem to botch it all up. Then we try to put a cover-up on our lives to make it look better. Problem is it doesn’t.

Jesus can however. He has the equipment, material and knowledge to fix any life. All we have to do is ask. He can take the worst and make it the best. He can take imperfections and make them perfect. He can take what has holes, fill them, and make them whole again.

Now I think I am ready to tackle the hole in the hall ceiling.

Still No Carpenter, Bro. Tim