There is an analogy from C.S. Lewis that I like. In it, he likens the Christian spiritual life being akin to someone who has purchased a home in poor shape. Like any good homeowner, after purchasing it, the buyer begins to work on the home. However, in the course of restoration, he sees some things that need to go. Some pipe work needs to not only be replaced but rerouted. There is a wall in the way of the new design that has to go. Tiles need to be taken out and perhaps a doorway removed. Demolition then is in order. Things have to be torn out in order to be rebuilt. As I write this I am having memories of doing demolition work on a rundown, historic home my father bought only to rebuild it. The finished home was beautiful, but in order to make that transformation, the old had to go to make way for the new.
Our lives are like that old run down home God has purchased through the blood of His son. As the new “homeowner”, He (God) begins a work of restoration. But it’s a restoration that goes according to His plan. He is the expert builder/rebuilder and knows how things work best. And we are that run down home. We become that beautiful restored home in His hands as He works on us. But unlike that home, we can resist the process. How do we do that? We do that when we tell God that he can’t have access to the rooms of our heart. We do that when we tell God, “no, no, Lord you can’t touch this or that part of my life” or “no, no, God, this is who I am and you can’t tell me or doing anything else here with me”. Another way we resist the process is when we tell God “this is how this or that should be done” or “I can handle this on my own God, thank you…” And in doing the above things, we frustrate the work of God in our lives. Not because God can’t overtake us, but because He respects our choice, even though we really no longer have a right to have a choice. He is after all, the homeowner. And in resisting, we unnecessarily frustrate ourselves by becoming subject to the futility of sin that keeps us in our dilapidated state.
I believe one of main reasons we do this is because we confuse God’s love with just acceptance and not change. We are so thankful God takes us as we are as sinful, broken people. He has compassion on our weaknesses. He affirms our worth when no one else does. Yes, thank God for this! But if we are to grow and experience a life in relationship with the Almighty, we have to realize God is not merely intent on just accepting us. He seeks to changes us for our good. He seeks to mold us and make us into the conformity of Christ (Romans 8:29). In our day and age when so often so many go on a quest to “find themselves” God’s response to that quest is a wondrous but startling discovery. We do not really know who we are and were meant to be until we are in Christ! Up until then, we are defined by our history, our joys, our sufferings, our comforts, our gifts, our failures, our accomplishments, our race, our ethnicity, our nationality. Years ago there was a line from one of the Star Trek movies where Captain Kirk says this so clearly when he declares “my pain has made me who I am”. Yes, pain is one of the major things that mold us. But God is the healer of our pain! God wants us to live our lives as the treasured, beloved sons and daughters He always wanted us to be in Him. He wants to affirm us as male and female, designed to live as such. No matter where we are on the spectrum of spiritual, emotion, mental, or sexual confusion, and no matter how we got there, God wants to heal and make us anew. God is no respecter of person and though the specific needs of our lives may vary, they are all satisfied in Him. God is so much more than about acceptance; He is about positive, redemptive, restorative change that comes only as we submit to his work in our lives, empowered by the Holy Spirit.
But we have to choose to not resist. We have to choose to give up the perception that we have a right to tell God how to conduct His business in our affairs. At every point that we do that, we are not truly letting Him be Lord but are still holding on to our own power and control. As Christians, God has made plain the vast majority of His ways. Churches may differ in how to explain some things, but the things that matter most are plainly clear. What we need then is not to try and accommodate God and his Truth to our society but how to live God’s truth in our society. Only in so doing will we come to know the fullness of life in God. Only then will our lives taken on depth, meaning, and purpose as we grow to become all that we are called to be and do according to God’s power and plan for our lives in the here and now. Only then will we know the fellowship of His sufferings along with the power of His resurrection-both of which are needed to become mature disciples of Christ (Philippians 3:10). Only then will we truly be able to love those who misunderstand us and heap abuse on us, even as we seek to love them and do them good. Only then will we be able to be lights in the darkness that dispel moral and philosophical confusion. Only then will we be able to be vessels of healing to those suffering and dying about us. Let’s choose not to resist and instead lean on each other in this walk of faith of letting God make us who are meant to become. We are mean to become beautiful homes where God’s Spirit dwells.
God bless!
