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Karen & Bill were both in their late 50s. Their children had grown and were out of the house and so they were finally in a place where they could fulfill one of their lifelong dreams. They wanted to completely renovate and restore a mansion. They searched around and finally found a house that had real potential. It was large and Victorian and must’ve been absolutely beautiful in its day, but that was a long time ago. Decades of neglect and abuse and indifference had taken its toll. There were holes in the floor and ceiling, no modern appliances, stairs & the railing were missing from the grand staircase. Windows were broken. It was one step away from being demolished and consequently, Bill & Karen got a great deal on it. With a few emergency improvements, it was just livable enough for them to move in. Of course, their kids thought they were crazy and vowed never to bring their grandbabies over until it was completed. But Karen & Bill saw great potential for this masterpiece and set out recreating what this house was intended to be. It took a lot longer than they thought it would because they were having to learn a lot as they went along. After initially trying to do a little bit of everything all at once, they finally decided that the best way to achieve their goal was to do one room at a time. So they started with the dining room. After months of hard work, they finished the room and had it exactly the way they wanted it – a chandelier from the ceiling, candles hanging on the walls, beautiful hard wood floors. They bought a beautiful cherry table. It was just the way they envisioned it and they were so excited that they wanted to have a party with their friends to celebrate the completion of this room. On the night of the big party, Karen was busy getting ready when she began to see the house as an outsider might see it. They had been living there long enough that they just kind of ignored the parts of the house that they hadn’t gotten around to yet. Yet, now that guests were coming over, she realized how much work the house still needed. She went into the living room and realized that the wallpaper was coming off of the wall and that they hadn’t gotten any furniture for it yet. So she closed the door to the living room. She went into another room and realized that there were holes in the floor and the lights didn’t work. So she closed the door to that room. She went upstairs and realized that there were squirrels still living in one of the bedrooms, so she closed the door to that room. In fact, the only room she was willing to share with her guests was the immaculate dining room that they had already finished. My friends, each one of us is like this mansion that needs to be renovated and restored. We all have things that are wrong with us, things that are broken and in bad shape. Granted, some parts of us are like that dining room and are really beautiful. But there are also many parts of us that have suffered from neglect or abuse or indifference. And the ashes on our foreheads remind us that we aren’t too far from returning to dust, that there is much in us that needs to restored. For each one of us was created as a masterpiece and God wants to help us become who we are intended to be. God wants to move into our barely livable hearts and work on us, one room at time if necessary. But see, here’s the thing, too often we close the doors in ourselves that we’re embarrassed about. We shut God out of the hurting, broken places in our lives. We don’t let God into the places that still need a lot of work. We invite God into our hearts to see the finished dining room, but don’t invite him into our rooms filled with broken relationships, hurt feelings or anger, difficult finances, addictions, disappoints and struggles. We are too proud to offer these rooms to God and think that we can just work on them ourselves. Or maybe we’re nervous and don’t want to admit what is really behind that closed door. Or perhaps we’re just really scared that God will truly see what a mess we’re in and won’t want us anymore. After all, complete rehab jobs can take a lot of time and can end up being really expensive. But despite our reluctance to let God in, there is some good news for us. Every time that we open one of those doors to a broken room, to a broken down place in our life, we don’t find rejection from God. In fact, God is like the ultimate interior decorator, one of those designers on Trading Spaces, who comes in with a plan and says, “Oh, I think we could do this and this and we can put this over hear, and do this with the windows.” And then God gives us gifts to help us in the renovation. He gives us promises that will help mend the broken places and make each and every room in our life the masterpiece that it was intended to be. Throughout the Lenten season, the next 40 days, we will be focusing on all of these gifts and promises that God gives to us – things like comfort, mercy, righteousness, an inheritance, the promise of seeing God, and the promise of heaven. For each and every room that we open up, God has a promise for it. For each and every place that we turn over to the renovating work of the Holy Spirit, God goes to work with whatever is necessary to complete the project. I have an activity to help us begin this renovation project that God has in store for us during Lent. I’d like for you to take out the insert that is in your bulletin and on this paper I’d like for you to write down all of those places in your life that you would like to see renovated and worked on. Go ahead and name those rooms that you’ve kept the doors closed to for a long time. Maybe it’s a broken relationship with someone. Maybe its learning how to love your wife better. Maybe it is having more patience with your parents. Maybe it is a particular sin that you are struggling with. Whatever it is that you would like to work on or have God work on you in the next 40 days of Lent, write it down on that paper.
When you’re done, fold these up and take them home with you. Do what you want to with them, but know that just by writing it down on the paper, you have opened the door to that room and God has some promises that might help, some promises that will help you heal. Use these next 40 days to let God work on you, to soak in those promises, to let God lead you into some new ways of caring and sharing. During this season, I encourage you to open yourself up for God’s renovation and prepare to be changed. As you leave this evening, please pick up one of the keychains in the bowls on the baptismal font. As you carry this token with you, let it remind you that God has some great promises for you and that you are constantly under renovation. Toward the end of Lent, as we near Good Friday, you will begin to realize how much your personal restoration project really costs, although you won’t be the one paying the bill. Amen.
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