Podcast coming soon…

One of my favorite shows on TV is the show Build a New Life in the Country. It’s a British show that follows people who buy run down and abandoned houses, barns, or sheds, and try to convert them into homes or businesses (or both). I love to watch and see just how the people fare, their ups and downs, their frustrations and joys, their setbacks and victories.

Each week the show follows a new couple as they set out to renovate a building, working all the hours that God sends to turn often inhabitable ruins into livable spaces. During the course of the show the people work against the elements, time, building planners, “cowboy” builders, and the odds, all the while trying to stick to the financial budgets they have set themselves. And in most cases they doggedly continue on, often despite major setbacks, to realize their dream.

I was watching one episode a few weeks back where a couple had bought an old barn that was nothing but a shell. The building had walls, and that’s it – no roof, floors, windows, or doors, nothing but the existing foundation and crumbling stone walls. But they had a dream to turn this ruin of a building into something special, a place of their own that they could call home.

As I watched this couple determinedly work to build themselves a new home, God showed me a spiritual parallel. At one point the couple looked like zombies, obviously through lack of sleep. Their money had all but run out for the second or third time. Their relationship was becoming more and more strained, and it was raining buckets outside so they were cold, damp, and extremely fed up. And at this point I did wonder if their dream was worth all the effort; to me all their hard work seemed pointless and in vain.

At one point in the show the shows presenter asked them what kept them going. They told him that in their minds eye they had seen what the building could become, and that was what drove them on. It was then that God revealed to me that he see’s us like those run down old buildings – whereas most people would simply write off the buildings, including me, he sees the potential of what the “buildings” could become.

Let me explain further. As a society we often write off the broken down “buildings” among us – the homeless, the drug addicts, the alcoholics, and the like. People that many of us would consider as worthless and not worth the effort. But God, much like the people in the show, looks past the filth and grime to see the potential of what these people could become. He doesn’t see the “wrecks” or “ruins” of this world, instead he sees children in desperate need of his TLC and restoration.

To be honest, when each one of us comes to Christ each one of us is in need of some much needed work. Scripture tells us that we are all works in progress, a work that will be carried “on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6.

Build a New Life in the Country usually ends with the “reveal.” And usually the building that was once nothing but an eyesore has been transformed into a beautiful home to be enjoyed for a lifetime. With this in mind, when we see the “wrecks” and “ruins” around us, we need to ask God to show us these “buildings” through his eyes. And instead of simply writing these “buildings” off we need to ask God to show us the potential of what these people could become.

“And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:18

Christian St John M.Div, BChM, ACS
January, 2009

Picture by Anonymous

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