“The Lord is my rock, my salvation and my fortress, I will not be shaken.” Psalm 62:2
We live in a charming 1925 Dutch Colonial. It’s as beautiful and charming on the inside as it is on the outside. Original oak hardwood floors, original trim, tall ceilings. It’s truly magical. Old homes take my breath away, they truly do. There’s something about the craftsmanship and the wood detail that I can’t get over. We’ve lived in our home for 5 years now and we have lovingly made it our own.
Alas, with that beautiful charm and character that takes my breath away, is almost 100 years of surprises and fixes hidden in those walls. Our home was a bit deceptive with it’s newly refinished floors and updated kitchen and bath. What could go wrong? I had already planned out our “happily ever after” in this house. I had all of my decorating endeavors mapped out on Pinterest. However, it didn’t take long to learn that the old knob and tube wiring that, during inspection, we thought was only in a small percentage of the home, was actually throughout the majority. Ouch. Not the safe home we imagined to raise our family in. And not only was it a costly project, but it is a messy long process that requires lots of holes drilled into your ceilings and walls to rerun all the electrical. With plaster walls what that means is dust, dust, and more dust. Everywhere.
It seemed that our list of “surprise, you live in an old house!” projects grew very quickly, much to my dismay. I begrudgingly set some of my decorating projects aside as we slowly chipped away at the necessary, though not as fun projects.
The most recent surprise was a leak in the foundation of approximately one third of our finished and carpeted basement. This leak had more than likely been taking place for months, if not years before we caught it. We had noticed a musty smell for a while but summed it up to a Michigan basement in the winter. It wasn’t until I stepped in the corner of the room and my foot sank in sopping wet carpet that we knew we had a serious problem. Yikes. By this point, not only did we have multiple leaks, but we had mold. The bad kind.
The remediation of our basement required not only a professional mold company to come out right away and take care of the mold issue, but it required multiple layers of removing walls, framing, assessing damage, talking to professionals, seeking out the best solution, and it required us living with the items we normally hide in our storage room in our main basement living area. Everything was exposed. The old not so pleasant interior of almost 100 year old walls, the leaks, the electrical wires, and all of our stuff that’s normally hidden away in storage. It was a large mess which has taken well over a year (many thanks to you, COVID, for increasing that timeline) to fix.
As we were going through this process of fixing our house, Jesus told me, “Jami, you’re not unlike this house.” I pondered what he was speaking to me through this. Some years back, the Lord had taken me through a major renovation of my heart. “The Excavation of My Heart” project, I like to call it. I literally asked the Lord to “Excavate my heart.” And he did! There were some major identity pieces in my heart that he had to align and set on the proper foundation. It was not fun, and it took a lot of surrendering to Him and it yielded a lot of messiness exposed, but it was worth it. Why? Because it brought healing, restoration, and in turn a massive amount of fruit to come forth in my life.
So here I was, Jesus telling me I was like our house with all of its basement mess exposed. But…I was solid…so I thought. The truth was, I was solid just like I thought our house had been. It all appeared to be in good condition, and truly, had had a significant amount of renovation done over the years. And truly, He’d equally done such a great work of renovation in my heart! And He had, it was true!
But then a storm came, and I realized He had been right. I was shaken. I saw areas that I’d thought had been healed or on solid foundation greatly shaken. “Lord!”, I had cried. “I don’t understand, you already took me through the healing process and restoration process in this area, why am I facing this storm right now?” “Jami, yes, you have gone through a healing process, and your foundation is strong. But your windows are leaking and you have some structural issues I want to fix. The storm you are in is exposing those areas. Are you willing to surrender to the master carpenter and allow me to continue the good work of restoration in your heart?”
You see, God is continually trying to improve and heal our hearts. Philippians 1:6 says, “And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” He wants to make us strong. Fix our “leaky windows”, our “structural issues”, our “knob and tube wiring”, or even worse, our “leaky basements with mold!”. He wants to take all the hidden things in our hearts that we’ve hidden behind beautiful walls, oak wood floors and Pinterest worthy decorations, and he wants to expose the mess behind it. All those leaks that have been there for years. My friends, the longer they are there, the messier it is. The higher chance of mold and a BIGGER job of restoration or our heart. Could it be that the storms you are facing are actually opportunities for God to show you what needs to be fixed?
The thing I’ve learned in this process, over and over again, is that He always asks permission. “Are you willing to allow me to take this wall out?” “Will you let me fix this area of your life?” And, are you willing to submit to Him, and allow Him to point out all the areas of exposure when the storm comes? No one wants to be living in a moldy house. Likewise we shouldn’t allow mold and water damage to remain in our hearts.
Those storms you may be facing right now, are they exposing the areas He wants to fix in your life? Are you willing to withstand the renovation, no matter how long and messy it may get, so that he can do his master work as the master carpenter of your heart?
Pray with me. “Jesus, I ask you to help me trust you, that every storm that comes my way is an opportunity for you to show me an area you would like to fix in my life. I choose to surrender and I say yes to your good work.” Philippians 1:6
