As I have shared because of my recent couch potato status (ugh…however reluctant and out of my control that is…it sounds so lazy, doesn’t it!?) I have been watching a lot of HGTV.  A word of caution…beware…there is temptation to really tamper with one’s containment factor on that channel…just saying.  Even so, for someone who hasn’t had much time for TV I am amazed at the renovations of the old houses that are brought back to life.  I love to see the finished product…the incredible transformation from old and decrepit to new…gleaming and wonderfully restored.  It reminds me of Thursday nights as a child.  Thursdays have always been my favorite day of the week and perhaps this is why-?  Long before NBC coined the term ‘must see TV’…we had our own version.  We would always watch The Cosby Show with my dad (my favorite and arguably the best sitcom of all time) at 8 o’clock sharp with a bowl of Hudsonville vanilla ice cream (ah…the good ol’ days before the onset of lactose intolerance) covered in Nestle Quick and my toppings of choice…Spanish peanuts and sliced bananas.  At 8:30 we would flip straight to This Old House with Bob Vila and Norm Abram.  Norm really needs no last name, he’s Norm…that amazing carpenter…you know the one, right?  Anyway even as a little girl I loved to watch the process of the houses going from old and unlivable to new and immaculate.  It makes me want to grab a sledge hammer and demo some walls baby…like I could even pick one up right now…but you know…sounds SO fun!  As my husband all too often reminds me…I married the wrong man to live in an old house.  He prefers a more modern approach to daily living.  New house=less maintenance…in theory.  In my mind…New house=less character x zero history…and I love me some history!  Needless to say when I see some of those homes ripped to rubble and rebuilt from the ground up, at times I am thankful the house God provided for us is on the newer side though I hope to prove my husband wrong someday.

As I watch these transformations I can’t help but relate it to my own life.  I turned 34 this week and officially entered my mid-thirties.  I hardly think that makes me an old house…but my health isn’t making me feel like a spring chicken or newly constructed dwelling either so I guess it fits.  In the step of faith to follow Jesus God took my heart of stone and gave me a new heart of flesh.  That began the transformation…one that will last my whole life through…the process of making me more like Christ until He calls me home.  In that sense the walls of my old heart had to be stripped and the old decrepit, dry, rotten wood eaten away by the lies of the enemy had to be replaced and re-structured…sured up with His Truth.  My crumbling foundation had to have new footings poured into the solid ground of the Gospel of Christ which set me free from the sinking sand I was in.  The electric was completely updated infused with the power of the Holy Spirit and a brand new high efficiency forced air furnace installed that blows the warmth of His amazing love through me to others when it is cold…and the cooling system like a refreshing cold cup of water to those who need refreshment in the heat of life.  The roof that covers me is better than any 25 year warranty shingle…it is my Shield that will never leak or give way.  The plumbing was also replaced and hooked up to a new water main….a continuous flow of His pure Living Water in which I will never thirst again that has brought me to life.  The fixtures bring His Light to the dark places of my heart reflecting into this dark world.  The finishing touches…the cosmetic details if you will…is who God made me to be…unique to only to this house unable to be replicated.  He continuously adds fine details of His character little by little as He transforms this old house into what He wants me to be.  While outwardly I may be wasting away…like any home that weathers in the storms of life through the years…inwardly I am being renewed day by day.  God has placed me in a community…a neighborhood of many other houses….some next door, down the street…across town and around the world to encourage and spur me on.   I am placed where I am for His purpose which I am so grateful.

Ha…and I thought I had retired from my construction background…not so much maybe.

If we’re honest…don’t we want to see the transformation like…right now!  We are wired for instant gratification this day in age.  We want the finished product.  When I am watching one of those rehab shows, I want to see the end result.  But they like to drag it out, don’t they?!  They tease you with a quick glimpse and then throw in another commercial just before the big reveal.  It all takes time and resources and man alive do they uncover major issues that you could never see when covered up…and if they are not dealt with…it can be devastating to the structure.  Take a crack at the walls and you never know what you will find.  What in this house is yet to be uncovered?  God sure knocks my work boots…stylish as they may be…completely off sometimes I tell ya!  Things I never saw coming.  Some of it…just like on those shows…is just…well…down right disgusting!  But the power of His redeeming blood washes me white as snow.  Contractors…they can overlook things.  Jesus…the Master Builder in is infinite power and resources doesn’t miss a thing.  This is no flip that will flop.  I can rest assured that He who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it and while it may seem to be taking a long time…His timing is perfect.  This old house is continuously under construction…a work in progress…and I am taking joy in the journey until I finally make it home to the new house He is preparing for me.  It will be greater than anything that could be constructed here on Earth and He does give us teeny, tiny glimpses of His fathomless grace, doesn’t He?  Just like yesterday when a dear, dear sweet friend reminded me that this tough journey home will.end.well!  Praise God!  I’m holding onto that today.  How about you?  🙂

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.  1 Corinthians 3:10-11

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.  My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  You know the way to the place where I am going.”  John 14:1-4