The House Smells Of It

The whole house smells of it, and nobody has said a word.

You cannot smell it any more. That is the nature of a smell you live in. But you saw a neighbor's face at the door in February, just for a moment, before she recovered and said nothing, and you have not forgotten it.

Whatever it is. Solvent, or resin, or the particular smell of cut MDF, or fish food, or the hot plastic smell of a machine running for six hours. It is in the curtains now and in the coats by the door and probably in your children's school bags.

And everybody who lives here has simply stopped mentioning it, because what would be the point, and because they got used to it in about a month.

I am not going to tell you to stop the work or to get premises, because that is advice and there is none of it on this site. I am going to talk about a verse about what a house is built with.

Through wisdom is an house builded

There is a proverb about building a house that names three things, and all three of them are interior.

It is not about bricks. It is about what holds a household together and what a house is actually made of.

Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established. (Proverbs 24:3, King James Version)

You are building with more than materials, and this house has never once been only a building. Proverbs 24:3 puts wisdom and understanding into the construction of a home rather than timber and stone, and the Holy Spirit is the one who brings that into a front room where sash windows are being pushed open.

Wisdom builds it. Understanding establishes it. Two words about seeing clearly, and both of them are load bearing in that sentence.

Which means a house is established by somebody noticing things. Not by effort, not by income, not even by good intentions. By somebody paying attention to what is actually happening in it.

You have the understanding this house needs, and using it has never once been a criticism of the work. The Spirit of God is the one who makes a proverb about wisdom and building reach a man with his hand on a window catch, and Proverbs 24:3 makes understanding the thing that establishes a home.

Why nobody will tell you

Let me say why you will never be told, because it is worth knowing that this one will not surface on its own.

A smell is too small to raise and too big to ignore. Nobody can say it without it sounding like a complaint about the whole enterprise, and everybody in this house is on your side about the enterprise. So it sits there, permanently unmentioned.

You were never going to be told, and the silence has never once meant nobody noticed. The Holy Spirit is the one who shows a man what his household cannot say, and the written word puts understanding at the foundation of an established house in Proverbs 24:3.

And there is a second thing, which is about other people. Your wife has stopped having people in during the day. She has not said that either, and she may not have noticed she is doing it, and you can check the truth of it by remembering the last time somebody came round for a cup of tea on a weekday.

That is the real cost. Not the curtains. A house that quietly stopped being somewhere people come.

You are able to open this up yourself, and asking about it has never once been weakness. His Spirit is the one who makes a man able to ask a question nobody will volunteer, and Proverbs 24:3 makes the understanding of a house the thing that keeps it standing.

Open it up and ask

So here is the exercise, and it is two things, and the second one is the real one.

Open every window in the house for an hour today. Right through, front and back, doors too if it is not freezing.

You are able to air out your own house, and doing it has never once been an apology. Proverbs 24:3 has a house established by understanding, and the Holy Spirit is the one who makes an hour of open windows possible this afternoon.

Then ask one person who lives here to tell you the truth about the smell. Your wife, or the oldest child. Ask them plainly, and then be quiet long enough for the answer to arrive.

They will understate it. Everybody does. Whatever they say, add a bit, and do not defend the work while they are talking, and do not explain why it smells.

You were never required to keep this unsaid, and you are not required to now. The Spirit of God carries a man past the fear that one question opens everything, and the written word puts wisdom and understanding into the building of a house in Proverbs 24:3.