Tag Archives: Renovation

Chapter-a-Day

The Spiritual “To Do” List

1 Comment

The Spiritual "To Do" List (CaD Php 2) – Wayfarer

Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”
Philippians 2:14-15 (NIV)

Wendy and I use an app that has become part of the fabric of our lives. The app was purchased by Microsoft a few years ago and is being incorporated into their suite of software. It’s call “To Do” and it’s an ingeniously simple way for having, organizing, assigning, and sharing tasks in multiple lists. We have lists for all of our major weekly supply stops. When we use the last of something, we immediately pull up the app and put it on the list. There are lists for specific stores, lists for personal projects, and lists for projects that need to get done around the house, the garage, the yard, and the lake.

In yesterday’s chapter, Paul began his letter to Jesus’ followers in Philippi by reminding them that we are all “works in progress” as we navigate this earthly journey in an effort to follow in Jesus’ footsteps and live as He prescribed and exemplified. As I opened up to today’s chapter in the quiet this morning, that word picture was still resonating within me. I have an app with a list of things I need to accomplish for our home maintenance and improvements. What about a list of things I need to do in my spiritual maintenance and improvements?

Paul once told the believers in Corinth that we are “temples of the Holy Spirit who is in us.” As I read and meditated on today’s chapter, I thought about the never ending, top-to-bottom, spiritual DIY renovation project of my life as a disciple of Jesus and a temple of God’s Spirit. I read the chapter as if Paul was acting as my spiritual renovation foreman informing me and instructing me on the spiritual improvements that need to be made to my life, my temple.

There were a number of tasks to go on my task list, chief among them was shoring up the foundation of my core motives. My foundation has cracks caused by my own selfish ambitions and self-focus. The remedy starts with applying a base coat of humility, then layer on top of it the valuing of others, their interests, and their needs before my own. Paul then refers me back to how Jesus did it as an example to follow. “If you don’t get the foundation of humility and an ‘others first’ focus laid down,” I heard Paul saying to me, “then everything you layer on top of it will be unstable. Eventually, you’re going to have to dig down and fix the foundation anyway, so do it right the first time. And, the longer you wait to deal with the foundation, the harder everything is going to be to dig down in there and get it corrected. Save yourself a lot of time, energy, and headaches. Get the foundational motivations right and everything else will be a lot easier and more stable in the long run.”

Speaking of the “others first” focus, Paul next went on to point out that my exterior lights weren’t working. These are the lights that shine in the darkness. They help others in my neighborhood find their way by helping them see, providing a reference-point as they are trying navigate, and also give them a destination if and when they need assistance.

Unscrewing one of the exterior lights, he showed me that the wiring had this dirty, greasy, corrosive smudge all over the connections. “This,” Paul informed me, “is the natural by-product of a critical spirit. This builds up on the exterior light system when the exhaust system of your conversations, blurts, phone calls, tweets, and Facebook posts is filled with excessive complaints, gripes, grumbling, criticism, negative rants, mean tweets, snarky replies, name calling, and the like. It short-circuits the exterior light system. The light can’t shine for others until you clean up the exhaust coming out of your mind, mouth, and social media. I guarantee that if you clean up all that smudge that’s coming out of you, your exterior lights will ‘shine like stars in the sky’ for everyone to see!”

So, in the quiet this morning, I’m entering my day with a couple of spiritual maintenance and renovation tasks on the personal “temple” To Do list.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Insatiable Discontent

Leave a comment

“You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”
Haggai 1:6 (NIV)

This past Saturday night Wendy and I attended the annual awards ceremony for our local community theatre. At the venue, there was a display of the renovation plans for our local Community Center. Some of our faithful community theatre members have been instrumental in generating support for the renovation as it has been the theatre’s home since 1987, and it needs updating.

Along my journey, I’ve come to understand that no large-scale project is universally loved and appreciated. No matter what you propose, there’s going to be opposition. Momentum and support for interest, funding, and investment require advocates willing to campaign for the cause. Thus, the members and their impressive display at the awards ceremony.

Over the last several months, I have been blogging through the “exilic” books which recorded that stories and accounts of the Hebrew people taken into captivity when Babylon besieged and destroyed Jerusalem around 600 B.C. A large contingent was taken into exile in Babylon and Persia (modern day Iraq) for 70 years. Then, many of the exiles returned to Jerusalem to resettle in their homeland, rebuild their city, and reconstruct the Temple which was in ruins.

The prophet Haggai wrote and preached among the returned exiles. Like any other major civic building project, the rebuilding of the ruined temple was not universally supported. In today’s opening chapter, Haggai clearly states the theme of the message that God had given him to address, which was a pointed call to rebuild the temple.

What I found interesting was the problem that Haggai called out, which was delaying the project: insatiable discontent. The people incessantly believed that they never had enough, and they perpetually wanted more for themselves. Life was an all-you-can-eat buffet and their appetites always brought them back to the line for more. That left little interest, support, or investment in rebuilding God’s temple.

In the quiet this morning, I am reminded of Jesus’ consistent words and example in advocating that His followers reject insatiable discontent that is so prevalent in our world, and invest in things of eternal value:

“You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.”

“You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.”

“Are you ready to rough it? We’re not staying in the best inns, you know.”

Jesus sent his twelve harvest hands out with this charge: “Don’t think you have to put on a fund-raising campaign before you start. You don’t need a lot of equipment. You are the equipment, and all you need to keep that going is three meals a day. Travel light. When you enter a town or village, don’t insist on staying in a luxury inn. Get a modest place with some modest people, and be content there until you leave.”

“What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.”

Jesus (excerpts taken from The Message)

The problem Haggai addressed with the returned exiles is a basic human problem. He couldn’t motivate people to invest in God’s house because they were never content with their own. Jesus addressed the same problem in His day. Human nature hasn’t changed in 2000 years. My basic human nature is continually given to insatiable discontent. There is always something in life’s all-you-can-eat buffet line beckoning to come back for more. I find myself needing a constant reminder of Jesus’ call to switch my appetites from the things of this world to His eternal Kingdom.

Chapter-a-Day

Renovation or Destruction

1 Comment

He shall have the house torn down, its stones and timber and all the plaster of the house, and taken outside the city to an unclean place.
Leviticus 14:45 (NRSV)

We spent this weekend with friends at the lake. It was a wonderful time of hanging out together and enjoying good conversation. Our friends bought a house a few years ago and have been in slow remodel mode ever since. The conversation this weekend meandered often to brainstorming thoughts and ideas for renovating their place. Wendy, who avidly keeps the television in her office on the DIY and Home & Garden channels, was more than happy to jump in with her thoughts and ideas.

There is a house on the lot next to ours at the lake. You can barely see it through the trees in the summer, but those who spend any time at our place on the lake eventually notice the place, and can’t help but be curious. We are often quizzed about the house by our guests. As far as we know, the small house has not been occupied by humans since the 1970s. The structure is largely rotted and the house is literally falling apart. Holes and openings in the structure have led to infestation of all kinds of critters. Those curious enough to wander through the brush to inspect the house closer will find that black mold covers the inside which was abandoned while still furnished. The furniture is equally rotten and covered with mold.

A newer home being updated. An abandoned house rotting. I thought about the contrast as I read this morning’s chapter about the ancient Levitical rules for “cleansing” of “diseases.” The cleansing not only included the human body but also the houses humans lived in. If there was the presence of mold or some other unhealthy thing growing in the house of an ancient Hebrew, the priest was called in to inspect it. If it could not be addressed the entire house was to be destroyed and the rubbish removed from the community.

I am struck this morning by the contrasting word pictures. Sometimes life is structurally sound, but there are always opportunities for improvement. An update here, a renovation there to raise the usefulness and value of the entire house. Other times in life, the core structure is rotten (even if hidden beneath several coats of fresh paint). Renovation is not an option because it changes mere appearances but does not address what is rotten at the core. Old things must pass away in order for new things to come.

Jesus addressed this very issue when he spoke with the priests and religious leaders:

“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You burnish the surface of your cups and bowls so they sparkle in the sun, while the insides are maggoty with your greed and gluttony. Stupid Pharisee! Scour the insides, and then the gleaming surface will mean something.”

chapter a day banner 2015

Wayfarer's Journal

We’re In Hot Water

1 Comment

Old things pass away, new things come.
Old things pass away, new things come.

Over the past few years Wendy and I have been slowly trying to update and renovate our cozy little tudor style home. We have worked with an architect on a master plan that includes some really cool changes inside and out. Before we get to that, however, there have been a lot of necessary, but not so sexy, updates we’ve needed to make to the infrastructure of our house. We’ve sort of taken it at a pace of one major project per year. Roof needed to be replaced. Gutters needed to be replaced. Windows needed to be replaced. Siding on the 2nd floor needed to be replaced. Last year we needed to deal with waterproofing the basement and shoring up the foundation.

We actually accelerated things this year with two major projects and a minor project. This past spring we tore out the old concrete steps in our front yard and poured a new front patio. Just a few weeks ago we replaced the green monster. Our home came complete with an ancient green boiler about the size of a small Sherman tank. Estimates of its age put it somewhere in the 50-70 year range. It was terribly inefficient and the heat escaping out of it turned our bedroom (on the floor right above it) into a virtual sauna each winter.

We replaced it a few weeks ago along with our hot water heater with new, high-tech units. The new boiler is a fraction of the size and looks like a jet engine. We can already tell the difference. It still keeps the house nice and warm but heat escaping off the old boiler used to make it nice and toasty in the basement boiler room. Now it’s like a typical chilly basement.

The old boiler is still sitting in the basement. The contractor discovered upon trying to tear it out that the core of the old boiler is made of steel and weighs a ton (pretty literally). They’ve spent weeks trying to get someone here to cut it in pieces and haul it out. Looks like that will finally be completed next week.

Chapter-a-Day

Building Projects

1 Comment

blueprintBut you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith….
Jude 1:20a (NLT)

For over a year, Wendy and I have been dreaming and scheming to make some major renovations here at Vander Well Manor. Our little brick tudor is a cute old house and we love it. However, the garage is rotting, the wiring and plumbing are ancient, and the boiler appears to have been installed sometime during the Roosevelt Administration. We realize that it is going to take a fair amount of work to bring our house into the 21st century and make some desired improvements. Over the months we’ve been working with an architect to plan the changes we want. Now we’re in the stages of figuring out just how much it’s going to take and cost. To be honest, at times it seems overwhelming.

Building something, and doing it right, is not an easy task nor is it a simple one. It requires planning, thought, investment, and a lot of hard work. In the end there is a cost, and when you’re doing renovation work there is always the question as to whether the resulting outcomes will be worth all of the cost in the end.

So it is with building people. God’s Message tells us that we are to “build one another up.” This, too, does not happen without planning, thought, investment, and a lot of hard work. There is always the question whether your hard work will have been a worthwhile investment. Yet, we are not told to consider the outcome nor is it in our control. Building up other people is simply part of the job description for those who follow Jesus. To be honest, at times it seems overwhelming.

This morning I am reminded that building up a home and building up people have many similarities. There is, however, one major difference. If we succeed in building up our home it will result in some nice and needed improvements, but the house will simply need more renovation in another forty or fifty years. If we succeed in building up people it can have eternal results.

God, help me be a people builder.

Related articles
Wayfarer's Journal

St. Patrick’s Day Demolition & Dinner

Leave a comment

One of the on-going struggles of owning a humble, old house is the never ending need for repair and renovation. Each year Wendy and I have some major update that we’re doing. Last year it was residing the upper level. Before that we needed to replace most of the windows in the main floor. Before that it was the roof. You get the picture.

Over the past few years we’ve known that we need to deal with the water issues in our basement. So, this past Saturday we combined Project with Paddy’s Day. My faithful friends came over on Saturday morning and helped me tear out old paneling, a shower, a stool, and a set of shelves. We had to uncover the walls and make way for Midwest Basement Systems to come and waterproof everything.

Fortunately, it was a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun as we labored. In the evening, the guys returned with wives and little ones to enjoy some of Wendy’s homemade pizza and Guinness Cupcakes as we celebrated the wearin’ o’ the green.