Let's talk about this house. A year ago, while serving in Moore with Next Step Ministries, I was given this home during the second week of mission trips to work on with a group of students. Little did I know then, that week would kick start a summer long relationship with this house...yes, I said relationship. I thoroughly enjoy challenging myself. This house must have had superpowers and sensed that from the start, because it seemed like every week it threw a curve ball at each group I worked with. It is an understatement to say that I had my work cut out for me.
This home was hit head on by the tornado that passed through Moore, OK in May 2013. While dozens of homes on its neighboring streets were completely obliterated or left in pieces, this home stood frayed on the outside while rotting on the inside. I can remember doing a walk through of the home before working on it and thinking it looked as if the tornado had passed through yesterday. Belongings were thrown across the room, dirt and paper fragments stuck to the walls, and pieces of the walls and ceiling were caving in due water damage--and that was just the inside.
When my team and I first began working on the home, we spent the first two days clearing out the house. Ripping up carpet, wiping down walls, and removing what was left in the home that the homeowners no longer wanted. When the house was cleared, we began demolition--my favorite.
The walls that were covered in mold and ceilings barely holding together were ripped out, with tons of enthusiasm by the students I might add. Little did we know what was waiting for us on the other side of those walls. I have never seen so much insulation in my life. It seemed to be never ending--I was literally up to my knees in it at one point (thank God and Home Depot for the painting suites we used to protect us from the itchy insulation).
By the end of the work week, the house was cleared, walls were removed, and progress was being made. With the next groups of students, the house began to become transformed before our eyes. That is not to say that the transformation didn't come with its fair share of set backs (hint, hint, lots and lots of angles and strange spaced posts just to name a few).
I visit friends in Moore, who became more like family during that summer, often. I'd be lying if I said I don't drive by the old house each time I come into town...sometimes more than once.
Over the last few weeks, this house has been on my mind. I visited Moore recently, and found myself circling it one afternoon. I'm sure to those who lived in the neighborhood, I was a little alarming.
Here's the thing...this house became more than a house to me over the course of 8 weeks. It challenged me from construction aspect, yes, but it did more than that. Mentally it confused me--squiggly posts and all. Physically it killed me at times--who needs a ladder when you can just as easily jump off the roof [Note: I only did that a few times]. Spiritually it drained me--my favorite phrase, "the tomb is empty", was used way more than normal. However, by the end of the summer, it transformed me.
We are like this old house. Many times we seem put together on the outside, but inside are a mess, With the right amount of force given by the storms of life, we begin to unravel and fall apart from the inside out.
2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: the old has gone, the new has come!"
We tend to over think and over complicate transformation. We make excuses that it is too expensive, too time consuming, or just too hard. Paul explains in 2 Corinthians 5 that transformation is so simple. Transformation happens when choose to be "in Christ".
I think that so many people are sometimes turned off by the church-y phrase "in Christ". Maybe it's because they don't fully understand what it means, I don't know.
To me, to be "in Christ" is describing a position I take before Christ. It means that despite the unraveling mess I am on the inside, I am choosing to position myself before Christ and willingly allowing him to work out not only in me, but through me as well--from the inside out. Paul is talking about much more than just a position, however. He is describing a relationship. A relationship that transcends all others, and transforms like none other--and Paul would know. Starting in the book of Acts, we read about Paul's literally head on collision with Christ, and the transformation that took place in the very heart of Paul. His encounter with Christ left such an overwhelming impact on his life that the only logical thing he could think of to do was to share with everyone what he had just experienced.
When we choose to be in a relationship with Christ, we transform like the old, unraveling, tattered house, to a newly renovated home. Note: transformation is not an overnight process, but a life-long one.
Perhaps you are the old house that I mentioned earlier--holding it together as best you can to maintain appearances on the outside, but if people were to look closely, they would see you are a mess on the inside. While the world would love to mark you as condemned or not worth living in, God looks as you as a diamond in the rough--the ultimate fixer upper just need of His love, grace, and mercy.
By the end of the summer, the house still had some work that needed to be done. However, the siding that was hanging of the sides of the house, was replaced with brand new siding. The rotting soffits and fascia boards were replaced with fresh pieces of wood. It was clear to people passing by, neighbors, and each new group of students that this house had been through the ringer, but was in the midst of an incredible transformation process.
You see, the Lord is the ultimate craftsman. He loves us just the way we are, right where we are. He doesn't mark us as condemned, but looks at us as forgiven and calls us one of his very own. He makes us new.
My prayer for you this day is that if you can relate to the old house, that you would first know that God sees you and loves you. He desperately desires a relationship with you. I pray that you would allow the Lord to work in your life and that little by little you would be able to see all the many ways he begins to transform you from the inside out. Invite him in and watch him work!
