I was anxious to go down and look this morning.  Recently, I had begun to tape and mud seams and corners on the drywall we installed in a basement room we are finishing.  All the corners and seams were put in place.  And last night I put the first coat of mud over them.

This is a somewhat routine part of the process, with one caveat.  If, by chance, the corner beads were not sealed correctly, the new mud will pull at the edges of them and create ‘bubbles’ where any part of them is loose.

I wondered how many spots were not sealed correctly that now would need to be redone.  To my pleasure, only one small spot, a bubble six inches in length and a fourth of an inch wide, needed attention.  I’ll just need to take a razor knife, cut underneath it, press it back down and let it dry.  Once dry, I’ll put a coat of mud over it and if it sticks okay I’ll sand the seams and apply the next coat of mud.

The key to my relief this time was taking care to apply an adequate coat of join compound underneath the seams/corners, firmly press them down and trowel away excess mud.  This process will be repeated at least two more times before we can begin to sand, finish and paint the surfaces.  Hopefully, by the end of the first weekend in September, I’ll be looking at an adequate finish job.  I see why not everyone wants to do this job and why those who do, get paid well.

In a way, this process reminds me of ‘sanctification’ God takes me through in my spiritual life.  As the Lord leads us along, He draws us into deeper and deeper relationship with Him.  His desire is that we press into Him ever more firmly each day.  He knows that a day in the future will dawn with the advent of a circumstance that will tug and pull at us and threaten the strength of safety of a life secure in Him.  If not, then He will help us cut away those things that are inadequately secured and redo the process.  He’ll repeat this as many times as needed until all holds strong in the face of stretching pressure.

In a way, I wonder if this common natural event is a fit example of the process God describes in 1 Peter 5:10.  There He says,

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace…will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you.

Let’s resolve to press into Him today.