Have you ever done a home renovation?
If you have, you know they are awesome. Just a ton of fun. Well, maybe for some, but for me…not really.
Anne and I own an old house. It was built in 1960. We love our house. We love our property. We love our location. But we’ve done a lot of work to our house and to our property – a LOT of work.
Now I know some of you guys are extremely talented when it comes to building things, and all things “handy”. Sadly, this is not an area of gifting for me. I can do simple things, but home renovations are not my strong suit. Once I tried to put new baseboards in our bathroom and the joints were so wide you could drive a pick-up truck through them.
So, when it came to doing serious renovations to our home, we brought in the professionals. We’ve done 3 major renovations to our home: One involving the bedroom side of the house – moving walls, ripping out bathrooms, putting in new ones, etc. Another one involving the kitchen – again tearing out walls, building new ones, lighting, counter tops, appliances, changing cupboards, etc. And, another one involving flooring, painting, casings, baseboards, etc. in other areas of the house.
We have lived through our fair share of renovations and I have learned something. Well, I have learned many things, but one in particular: It always looks worse before it gets better.
Once you take the big gulp and decide to do the demolition, which comes before the rebuilding, you know that it’s going to be uncomfortable and ugly before it gets functional and fantastic. During our first renovation of the bedrooms and bathrooms we had to move our bed into the living room and the boy’s bunk beds into the family room. We all shared a powder room off the kitchen – with no shower.
Dirty, dusty, smelly, awkward, uncomfortable and unenjoyable. Sometimes even painful. We began to lose patience and even lose hope that it would get better. However, you can’t stop in the midst of it or it definitely won’t get better. You have to go through the entire process. You have to go through the pain and inconvenience if you want to experience the pleasure and the new found freedom of a renovated home.
It’s no different with regard to personal growth. If you want to upgrade habits, attitudes, beliefs, coping mechanisms, and the like, it’s going to take some effort and commitment to persevere through the discomfort and inconvenience to new found freedom. It can be fearful to look at the process you need to go through to create the change you want to see in your life – like doing a significant home renovation.
However, you have to be willing to commit to the process and do the “heavy lifting”.
You also have to be willing to live in a worse state before you can live in a better state. It will get worse before it gets better. You will feel worse before you feel better. You will be tempted to go back to the way it was, to go back to how you used to do things. Remember though, you will not find increased freedom if you don’t persevere through the heart renovation process.
Jesus is the Master Craftsman who is the general contractor for your heart renovation. He will use different subcontractors to do different jobs in your heart. Some of them you may not like very much, but you need to trust that Jesus knows what He’s doing and can work through imperfect laborers. And, He’ll even ask you to do some of the work.
Jesus invites us to entrust our hearts to Him to begin the heart renovation process of demolishing and rebuilding habits, emotions, attitudes and beliefs. We can trust Him with our hearts, but it will look and feel worse before it gets better. Don’t give up. Persevere through the difficulty and discomfort so you can experience the freedom of His work.
Heart renovations take time, and like a great home renovation, are worth your effort and your commitment so your latter glory is greater than your former glory.
Philippians 3:14
“I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Ephesians 1:18, 19a
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.”
Hebrews 12: 5b, 6
“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”
Hebrews 12:11
“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”