I Need A Remodel

"For I know the plans I have for you" declares the Lord, 

"plans to prosper you and not to harm you, 

plans to give you hope and a future."

Jeremiah 29:11

Our kitchen definitely needs help. Everything is looking old. The cabinet doors won’t close properly, the tile on the counter is cracked, the dishwasher is leaking, the flooring is permanently dirty, and the shelves are always sticky. Sigh. It's not very functional, it's embarrassing to look at, and I hate to have guests see it. Even I hate to see it! Our kitchen – the heart of our home – needs a redo. 

But...how big of a redo? I mean, it is bad, but is it worth thousands of dollars to remodel? Maybe we should just scrape out the bad grout, put bleach on the shelves to scrub them clean, and paint over the old cabinets. Do we really need to spend the money to remodel it?

This is the issue my husband and I wrestled with many years ago. And in the case of a kitchen, arguments certainly can be made for making do “as is”, or just giving things a face-lift. Ultimately, we opted for a significant make-over. But in the case of our hearts, there’s really nothing to debate: God definitely votes for the remodel. He knows that simply scrubbing off stains and painting over our independent, controlling natures will only mask our need for change. We need to be remodeled from the inside out. And our Father is more than willing to do this so we can become more like Jesus.

Here’s the challenge: we’re not always sure we want to be remodeled, even though he promises it’s for our own good. We may question if we really need a make-over versus a simple touch up.

Yet Jesus tells us that before the new stuff can go in, the old stuff has to be destroyed (Ephesians 4:22-24). Ouch!! And just what is the “old stuff” that resides in our hearts? Well, it could be any number of things, but we could start with some obvious ones: pride, selfishness, jealousy, impatience.

I’ll be you could you add a few more to this list.

Even when we recognize the need for the remodel, though, we often resist. We resist because it’s inconvenient, noisy, and intrusive. The demolition can be messy, because – just like what happens in an old kitchen – some things deep in our hearts have been ground in for a long time, building up grease and grime. So we can’t do a heart remodel all on our own, and we can’t hurry up the process. If we do, it’s like painting over cracks in a tile. It may look great today, but underneath, the cause of the crack will still be there and can cause us problems in the future. 

And sometimes we resist because we can’t see how God is going to work things out and what the finished product will look like. We have trouble trusting that God has a good plan for our remodel. That’s where the heart-warming words of Jeremiah come in. They remind us that God always has good in store for us. He has plans for us to flourish, because we are his children.

When our kitchen makeover was finished, our feelings about the weeks (months!) of mess and inconvenience faded away. The heart of our home now gleamed with freshness, and it provided us with a new level of productivity that we reveled in. The results were worth the headache and heartache.

In the same way, our discomfort at the process of being remodeled by God will fade away as we revel in the results. And we will reach that point – we will make it to the end of his remodeling project – when we hold firmly onto his promise. The promise of hope, and a future full of meaning and purpose, because he loves us and never will abandon us. 

Let me pray for you. Dear Jesus, I pray that you would be with each person reading this blog as they head out into their day. Help them to trust that if you are doing remodeling work within them, you do it because you love them and have something good in store for them. Help them to trust the work of your hand upon their heart. In your name, amen!

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