Wrecking in Progress

Have you ever seen those used-to-be-beautiful homes that have fallen into disrepair and you dream about how awesome it would be if someone would fix them up and bring them back to their former glory? Have you ever been one of those fix-em-up people? If you have ever been part of renovation of any kind you know that in order to bring things back to former glory (or new glory), most of the time there has to be some kind of demolition first. You may have to tear out the old plaster and lathe walls. You may have to remove the old stained and chipped vanity. You might have to pull out the old pipes or wires. And in the process you end up with a much bigger mess than you started with.

But the mess is necessary. It has to be done. You can’t get new while holding on to the old.

In the next couple of weeks, we are going to enter the season of Lent. This is the time in the church calendar leading up to Easter. It is a time of preparation. It is a time to remember the 40 days that Christ spent in the wilderness fasting and being tempted by Satan before beginning His ministry on Earth.

For this reason, I find it quite coincidental or rather, “God-incidental” that my Bible Study girls and I decided to go through the study, The 7 Experiment: Staging Your Own Mutiny Against Excess, by Jen Hatmaker. It is based on her book, 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess.

In less than 14 pages, I was already to the point of being wrecked. The Lord was helping me to see some areas in which I have some work that needs to be done, some tearing out that needs to happen to make room for building back up.

I can tell it is going to be painful. I can tell that I am going to get defensive about certain things that I don’t want to have ripped out because I like them just the way they are. But I can also tell that it is work that is needed and necessary in order to make room for more of Jesus and His ways to take over in my life.

So let the wrecking begin.

I would challenge you to pick up this book, or another one that rocks your world a bit, as we enter this season of Lent. Let some wrecking happen in your life as well, so God can do some rebuilding.