|
My new home is in downtown Troutman . . . a quaint brick house with an amazing backyard. At the bottom end of my lot there was this barn-type building. It had SO MUCH character and I was really excited for the potential it held.
Until I started spending a little more time in it. Prior to the close I was taking some measurements because it needed some new doors, new windows, and frankly, some flooring. The longer I spent in the building the more I noticed that things weren’t exactly as they seemed upon first look. When I first saw it I was enamored with the rusticness, the novelty of having “my own shed” (apparently “she-sheds” are a real thing). However, after extended time in there there was a smell that just wouldn’t go away and some critter remnants that probably wouldn’t be sustainable for my peace of mind moving forward.
So after much thought I decided to demolish the building. Because Brad Ronnow seems to have infinite knowledge about big projects I enlisted his help. He studied the structure and concluded it would take some work but it was definitely something we could do.
I thought, “Oh, this is going to be a piece of cake. I’ve been on countless mission trips where we tore down flood ravaged homes, this shouldn’t be a big deal. It’s old, dilapidated, and won’t take any work at all.”
Little did I know that even though it looked rough on the outside that thing was constructed so solidly, it was a NIGHTMARE and two solid days of 10 people ripping, cutting, sawing, and sweating to get the thing down. (Not to mention pulling it down with Brad’s monster truck).
That building was/is symbolic of our egos. They are so solidly constructed yet we must work to deconstruct them if we are going to achieve atonement with God. We must realize it isn’t about us . . . that it is about humility and selflessness.
God revealed that to the prophet Jeremiah . . . As God said in the inaugural vision to Jeremiah: “Your job is to take apart and demolish, and then start over building and planting anew” (Jeremiah 1:10).
As we find ourselves at the beginning of our 30 days of “staying” and “being” . . . what if we do some serious mirror looking, especially as we prepare to enter Holy Week on Sunday?
What if we investigate how and what we need to demolish so that we can begin rebuilding anew?
Beautiful things come from ashes but we have to do the demolition before we can start to construct the beautiful things.
Grace and Peace,
Andrea
|
|
