by LaNelle
I’ve been working on a painting project this summer, trying to finish the back soffit of our old house. It’s making me think about the process of transformation. This project has been more time-consuming and frustrating than I expected. The old weathered boards were coated with various paints in various stages of erosion. In some places, no paint was left. In others, it was stubbornly adhering to the surface and seemed impossible to remove. I tried applying a caustic stripping compound to help remove the layers of paint and prepare the wood for a fresh covering. I scraped and scratched and scoured. I put on primer and followed that with two coats of paint. I had plenty of distractions, including moths and flies and bees and spiders and wind and heat. My arms got tired and achy. The whole process was messy. I thought of the Disney movie “Sleeping Beauty”, where things were changed to a new color by one shake of a magic wand, and sighed that I didn’t have access to such a wand! The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by trusting you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
We are greatly in need of God’s transforming work in our lives. We would really prefer the magic wand method, too. We don’t really want the scraping and stripping away (sometimes painfully) of things that just don’t belong in our lives. We get tired of the process and the distractions that hinder us. At times it just seems like a mess. But we can be confident that God will continue his transforming work in us (Philippians 1:6). By His Word and His Spirit He will make us new as we trust Him and submit to His work in our lives. My project was definitely a project with purpose. I wanted to protect the boards from erosion and damage. I wanted the painted soffit to endure the harsh realities of Nebraska weather. I wanted it to be uniform with the front soffit (which I painted last summer), to blend in with and complement the rest of the house, to look good and add beauty to the whole. God has His purposes, too. He wants to make us strong in His strength so we can endure the storms of life. He wants to bring us into unity with other believers, to make our lives conform to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29), and to allow us to reflect the beauty of His work. Notice in Romans 12:2 above that Paul says, “by trusting you may discern…what is good and acceptable and perfect.” My soffit is gradually being transformed this summer. In the same way, God’s desire is to transform your life and my life into something new and fresh that will please Him and bring Him glory. Let’s choose to trust Him and begin to see the transformation!
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