HOME IMPROVEMENT

We need to allow God to repave us. I have traveled over many bad roads in my time and to just have the road crew re-surface these bad roads will only see the issues return. Before long potholes come back with a vengeance and major cracks, bumps and dips show their ugly selves again. The underlying problem is just smoothed over for a while. What is needed is a total repaving of the area. This is where the pavement is dug down, gutted out and leveled then fresh road is poured into the cavity.

Put another way, an iceberg is said to only present five to 10 percent of its floating, mountainous self above water. While its shape, features and beauty can be observed and even admired from above the water or in public, possible dangers lurk beneath the waves with the other ninety to ninety-five percent of the iceberg. What is needed is an iceberg specialist. This would be someone who could chisel away at the ugly parts above the water and see through the water enough to remove the dangerous edges underwater.

Whether you might consider yourself a road with cracks and potholes that just keeps getting resurfaced or an iceberg that needs work above and below the waterline, we all need some overhaul in certain areas of our lives. The keys to this repaving or restructuring are (1) acknowledging your issue, (2) surrendering to God, and (3) trusting Him with the repave/restructuring process. This does not mean you will not have work to do on yourself to help in the cause, but the larger transformation or battle is The Lord's.

This lesson is all about improving and usually that involves a process. Paul reminds us of this when he stated, "And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." (2 Corinthians 3:18). We get repaved so that our journey and the journey of others is smoother. We get restructured as that proverbial iceberg so that the unseen, underlying issues get resolved before they sink relationships faster than they sank the Titanic.

God called the believer's body His temple. Paul said in his first letter to the church in Corinth - "Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?" This is a far cry from a road or an iceberg. However, our body, mind and spirit - our temple - still has the same challenge as the road and iceberg. We can do changes to the structure of a house, but what is also needed drastically with the help of the Lord is Home Improvement.