Have you ever seen the movie Life as a House? Remember cutie-pie Hayden Christenson? If you haven't seen the movie, or you forgot about Hayden (aka Darth Vader)...see it and remind yourself. It's a really great flick about a man who finds out that he's dying. And when he surveys his life, he realizes that he lives in a falling apart shack and that all the relationships in his life are broken. The house becomes representative of his life. So, he decides to tear down the old house, build a new one and heal relationships while he yet has breath in his body.
It's a really old movie. When you're young, you miss all the nuance and meaning in a story. It's the same way with reading the Bible. It's why we can read a scripture and it mean one thing, and two years later, it'll mean more.
I didn't watch the movie again (though now I really want to), but I was reading a scripture again, and it made me think: Life as a House.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
Ephesians 2:19-22
That movie is NOT Christian, at all. However, it speaks to me. It speaks to the state that so many of us are in before we come to Christ:
- The man is content to live in a dilapidated shack for over 20 years, separated from his family. To him the shack was okay. There was nothing wrong with the shack.
- Likewise, before Christ, many of us were cool living in a "shack", separated from God. We were strangers and aliens, living separately, and it was FINE. And it was like that for a long time.
- Then the man realized he was dying, and it was a turning point.
- I believe there is a turning point for everyone who comes to Christ; some are more obvious than others. Maybe you realize that spiritually, you're dying. Or maybe you just realize that something is missing; or maybe you realize that your faith isn't what you thought it was and there is more out there. Whatever the point, it turns you.
- Then he tears down his old house.
- I've been a Christian a long time. And I'll tell you that this is the hardest part of being one. In order to build a new house, in the same spot, and in order to build a new life, in the same spot...something extreme has to take place (Think Extreme Makeover: Life Edition). The old you has be be completely destroyed. It's the scariest part of Christianity. And it is where we develop the most trust issues. "Don't destroy my kitchen! Those are granite counter-tops!" That's the difference between us and the man in the story. He's "all in." He KNOWS he lived in a shack, and that even though he enjoyed it for 20+ years...he sees that he was in error, and he is ready for demolition. We think that only some things in our house were messed up, and we only need God to make some minor adjustments...but God doesn't make minor adjustments.
Imagine this is YOU... - He builds a new house, and in the building of it, restores relationship with his family. I feel like this one is best explained via a scripture:
- Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:17-19.
This is kind of a rambling blog, because I read Ephesians 2 and thought: Life as a House...Life as a House of GOD. I thought that was deep.
This is one of your best posts! Point #3 is so true... it's hard to let go of things that I feel I've been successful with, and let God have control and show me what true success in these things are.
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