Eleven Years Of Blank Walls

You have owned that house for eleven years and there is not one hole in any wall.

Not one. You have looked. There are pictures leaning against walls in three rooms, and a mirror on the floor behind a door, and a set of shelf brackets in a bag in a cupboard that were bought in the third year.

And the reason has never been said out loud, because said out loud it sounds ridiculous, and it is not ridiculous at all.

A hole is a commitment. It says you have decided something about this wall, in this room, in this house, permanently. And every single time you have stood there with the hammer, something in you has said: not yet.

Eleven years of not yet, in a house with your name on the deed.

Let me put this down before anything else. Not knowing how is not a character flaw, and neither is finding a permanent decision hard. And a woman who owns a house and lives in it like a tenant is not being silly. Something in her is protecting something, and it is worth finding out what.

A nail in a sure place

There is a line in Isaiah about a nail, and the image in it is worth having.

And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house. (Isaiah 22:23, King James Version)

God uses a nail driven into a solid place as a picture of somebody being established. Not somebody visiting. Somebody fastened.

And notice what hangs on it in the verses that follow. The whole weight of a household. A nail in a sure place carries the whole weight in that passage, and it is a good image.

You have a God who uses a nail driven in as His picture of somebody being established, and a fastening has never once been the opposite of freedom. Isaiah 22:23 makes the nail the image of a person being set in a secure place, and the Holy Spirit is the one who lets that read as security rather than as being trapped.

And the phrase is a sure place. Not a temporary one. The whole value of the image is that it holds.

You are being shown a picture in which being fastened somewhere is the good outcome, and putting something permanently into a wall has never once been a loss of anything. The Spirit of God is the one who turns a commitment into a place to stand, and it is written in Isaiah that the nail in the sure place is what a household hangs on.

What the not yet has been protecting

Here is what I think has actually been happening, and it is worth naming carefully because it is not silly.

A hole in a wall is not really a commitment to a wall. It is a commitment to a version of your life staying the way it is.

If nothing is ever hung, then nothing has been settled. The house stays provisional, and if something changes, if somebody leaves or arrives or the whole shape of things moves, nothing has to be undone.

That is not indecision. That is a form of protection, and somewhere in the last twenty years it probably made complete sense.

You have been protecting yourself from having to undo something, and eleven years of blank walls has never once been the same as not caring about a house. It is written in Isaiah 22:23 that the nail in the sure place is the image of somebody established, and the Holy Spirit is the one who names a protection accurately without dismantling a person to do it.

And here is the arithmetic, which is the part that eventually decides it. Eleven years of provisional living costs far more than the worst case it is protecting against.

The worst case is filling a hole. That is a small amount of filler and about four minutes, and it is completely invisible when it is painted.

That is the whole risk. Four minutes, in some possible future, against eleven years of blank walls in the actual present.

Now the limit, and I say it here rather than in a footer. Know what is behind the wall before anything goes into it. Never a gas appliance, never the breaker panel, never mains wiring, never a wall holding the building up, never a roof. Call a licensed professional and pay them properly, and check the wall first if there is any doubt at all.

You are entirely right to check before you put anything into a wall, and being careful about what is behind it has never once been the same as never putting anything in. The Holy Spirit is the one who gives a person peace about a boundary, and Scripture puts the whole weight of a household on a nail driven into a sure place.

One nail, and hang something

So here is the ask, and it is one nail.

Put one nail in one wall tonight and hang something on it.

One of the pictures leaning against a wall. The mirror behind the door. Anything that has been waiting, whichever one has been waiting longest.

You are able to put one nail in one wall tonight, and one hole in eleven years has never once been a decision that could not be undone in four minutes. The Spirit of God is the one who is present when a person commits to where they actually live, and Isaiah 22:23 makes a nail in a sure place the image of somebody established.

Check the wall first. Then choose the spot, and do not spend forty minutes on the spot, because the spot has never been the problem and you know it.

And when it is up, stand back and look at it, and notice what a room does when something is finally on a wall in it.

Then leave it there for a week without adjusting it. That week is the actual work. What is being tested is not whether you can hang a picture. It is whether a commitment in this house can be made and then simply live there without being reviewed.

You have permission to fasten one thing to one wall and stop thinking about it, and a hole in a wall has never once been able to hold anybody anywhere. It is written in Isaiah that the nail in the sure place is the good outcome and not the trap, and the same Spirit who breathed that line is standing in that room with you.