How’s Your Grand Design?

I’ve always been fascinated by television programmes that deal with the home like Grand Designs or Escape to the Country. It’s probably not surprising that the analogy that most strongly resonates with me is that of us being like a house.

Before we encounter Jesus, we are a house with its doors and windows open to everything the world has to offer. Some things add value to the house. Others cause damage we need to fix.

When we accept Jesus, there’s a new landlord in town! We repair the broken doors and windows and learn how to live in a godly way. We remove anything we no longer want to bring inside.

But what about the damage that was already inside? Jesus came to restore, renovate and renew our interior. No one wants a property that looks pretty on the outside but isn’t liveable within. We have to get rid of the rubbish. Clean out and clean up. If we are honest, we all have stuff inside our houses that need it.

Yet, finding what’s damaged or broken within us isn’t always as obvious as holes in the walls or a ruined bathroom.

Consider a house’s electrical wiring - the means by which messages are sent to everything electrical to tell it to work. Lights, power and appliances all rely on communication designed to happen behind the walls, built into the fabric of the home during construction.

As we grow from babes to adults, similar messaging is happening within us in response to our world and it has great influence. Our beliefs, our upbringing, people and events, society and culture, and traumas all combine to create our truth, the lens through which we see the world, and forms the core of who we are. Yet, no one anywhere has had perfect input from every source. As a result, our beliefs, the things we hold as truth at the very centre of our being, can be a little skewed, maybe even distorted, and at worst – lies. These beliefs, which are hardwired into us as truth, can make our lives a misery.

If I believe God can’t love me, it’s as if the fuses in the house have blown. If I believe I’ll never be good enough, it’s as if the power has failed. If I believe the world would be better off without me, it’s as if rats have chewed through the wiring. The wiring may be smouldering behind the walls. But the day will finally come when it catches fire.

Our house may need a little work, or a complete rewire. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, allowing God to transform our old belief systems with His truth. When we trust our Heavenly Electrician to know where we need work, our house, with the benefit of rewiring, can live to withstand many more seasons to come.