I enjoy the show “Fixer Upper.” Chip and Joanna Gaines show prospective buyers 3 properties, envisioning how each house can be improved to meet their needs. The clients then choose one and Chip and Joanna get to work.
The proposed renovations always seem straight forward, but in every episode, there is an unexpected. It may be water damage, a bee infestation, rusted HVAC equipment, or some such thing. And every time the repairs will be costly and time consuming. Yet, with eyes on the prize, the client okays the work and expense. And in every case, the results are breath-taking.
I had my “fixer upper” moment in 2011. I don’t need ideas, but I find this show to be about vision, hope, hard work, and faith. It’s where “meh” becomes “wow.” And we could all use a little less “meh” and a little more “wow” in our lives right now.
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Oh, Lord! I’m a fixer-upper, too. There are a lot of miles on this girl. I need a lot of patching. But when that fixing gets hard (as it always does) I give up. I am definitely not a do-it-yourself project: I can’t do it myself.
And that’s just with what I can see. There are things going in me — foundationally or structurally wonky things — the effects of my “sin nature.” I need the Master Builder. Because, Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted. Psalm 127:1a New Living Translation
So I pray, God, I invite your searching gaze into my heart.
Examine me through and through;
find out everything that may be hidden within me.
Put me to the test and sift through all my anxious cares.
See if there is any path of pain I’m walking on,
and lead me back to your glorious, everlasting ways—
the path that brings me back to you.
Psalm 139:23-24 The Passion Translation
I can ask, because I know that “God always gives you all the grace you need. So you will only have to suffer for a little while. Then God himself will build you up again. He will make you strong and steady. And he has chosen you to share in his eternal glory because you belong to Christ.”
1 Peter 5:10 New International Reader’s Version
Amen. Always amen.
Imperfection is the prerequisite for grace.
Light only gets in through the cracks. Phillips Brooks