So the first day of work was, in HGTV parlance, "demo day." It is hard to believe that it only took one day to tear down a bathroom and a kitchen to bare walls. That was yesterday, and today they are scraping "popcorn." In another couple of days, they might actually be able to begin rebuilding.
That is what we are all supposed to go through when we commit our lives to the Lord. Too many of us just paint over a bad spot and think that will take care of it. Jesus said from the beginning of his ministry that he expected a whole do-over.
And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me (Matt 10:38). We see that passage and completely miss the point. We view taking up our cross as some sort of trial we undergo, like an illness or a disability, or maybe an actual person who actively works against us. But wait! In that culture, if you saw a person carrying a cross, what did you instantly know? That he was going to his death, that's what. Jesus was not telling them to die for him physically, though that might indeed be required down the road, but they must die spiritually in order to be truly converted. Isn't that what Paul said? I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Gal 2:20).
And if you still don't get the point, he tells us when we are supposed to die that death. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin (Rom 6:3-7). When we were baptized, we were supposed to have crucified the old person we used to be and begun living a brand new life.
You can only completely renovate yourself when you have done a demo down to the bare bones. Only the one "who has died" in baptism "has been set free from sin." If you left anything hanging around, if you decided you could be a disciple of Christ and still act the way you used to, talk the way you used to, think the way you used to, live the way you used to, your demo day was incomplete and thus, your conversion as well.
Demo day in this house was uncomfortable. It was noisy, dirty, dusty, and the utilities were on and off. We had to empty every single cabinet, drawer, and closet in those two rooms. Sweeping at the end of the day didn't even clean the floors. But now the rebuilding begins, as it should have begun for us after our "crucifixion." It will probably take longer than the demolition, just as it will in my home. But just like my kitchen and bathroom will be so much better than it was, so will we, if we do the work the right way.
Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new (2Cor 5:17).
Dene Ward