A Little Remodel

I have a story for anyone who has ever remodeled a room.

Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada, and you know, Ken and I have been talking forever about re-doing our kitchen cabinets. When I purchased our house as a single person back in 1979, my cabinets were already seven years old. And now those same cupboards, which have never been refinished or repainted, are 45 years old, okay? And they look it. I have been asking Ken if we could put in new cabinets, please. But then, that would mean putting in new wallpaper, new paint, and then redoing the kitchen counter (of course you have to do that—the counter which is also 45 years old), and probably the floor. Oh my goodness, that’s the original floor as well! Okay, you know what? I’m going to take a snapshot of my kitchen and let you see for yourself my 45-year-old, dark, dingy cabinets. Yep, putting it on Facebook and putting it on my radio page today. But one day, we’ve got to move ahead with this major remodel. Ken says that it’s going to be too hard; that we’ll have to live in sawdust for months; how will we manage meals, and on and on. We both would like it to be a quick, easy little remodel, but it is never that way.

And you know what? It’s a great picture of what God is building in our life. We think it’s only going to involve a little remodel, but we hand God the keys to the front door of our lives, and give Him access into all our rooms and closets, and guess what? He’s got a bigger idea, no little remodel on His part. I thought about it not long ago when I stumbled across this quote by C.S. Lewis. He said, “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage, but He—He’s building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.” Wow!

Isn’t that true? Isn’t that great? Most of us when we come to Christ, we already realize that we need rescuing, but some want God to only rescue them a little bit, not too much. We give him our lives, trusting that He’ll build something beautiful in us, but we don’t give him the keys to all the closets. There are one or two secret places that we like to keep private—that we like to shield from the scrutiny of the Holy Spirit. Oh but my goodness, if we give God our lives in serious, our hearts, He will insist on the whole package. He’s not about doing a little remodel; He’s all about reconstruction, starting from the foundation up. And what is He building? A temple, a palace in which the King of glory will reside, not a cottage, not a 900-sq. ft. apartment. It’s not a tiny house on wheels. It isn’t a house trailer, and it is definitely not a rental. If God is going to make His home in your heart, it’s going to be holy, pure, honorable with rooms large and spacious. It’ll be a place of hospitality and welcome. God will make your heart large enough to embrace all those who wish to draw near and know you better, all because they can look through your windows and see a place of peace and joy and hope. In other words, they see in you a palace fit for a King.

So give the Holy Spirit clear passage into every room in your life. Let Him not merely remodel you; let Him reconstruct you. Your part is to just make certain the foundation is Jesus Christ Himself, just as you’re told in I Corinthians Chapter 3, verse 11. Because with Jesus, you know He’s all about building something great, something beautiful in you.

© Joni and Friends