Dominoes

After taking a few days away, Sharon and I have begun some reconfiguring of Anina’s house.  There are plans to eventually do a home make-over (not of the extreme kind), but for now we’re simply repurposing some of the rooms in the house.

Anina’s bedroom, where the children loved to play, is becoming the grandkid room with a twin bed, toddler bed and tons of books and puzzles (all of which resided at various seasons in the living room, den or office).  In order to turn the bedroom into a grandchild’s paradise we had to remove the terribly outdated blue shag carpet along with the padding underneath.  As we removed the padding we discovered tiles beneath.  When finally we removed the carpet, padding and tiles, we washed the concrete floor thoroughly.  Then we moved the foam floor tiles from the garage play area into the room.  We moved the toddler bed out of Anina’s office where it’s been for a few months now.  We moved the toy box out of the living room where it’s been for years.  We moved book cases out of the hallway and my garage office.  

Anina's room is becoming the grandkids room, the office is becoming the guest room, the den is becoming my office, the TV is moving from the den into the rearranged living room, the sewing table is moving from the den into the guest room and the garage is becoming a garage.  No wonder I'm tired.

Moving things from one room into another created a domino effect.  In fact over the space of a few days we must have looked at each other and said, “Dominoes” at least a couple dozen times.  There were times we inwardly hesitated to move forward knowing a series of other changes would be needed as the result of one small change.

The feelings this created in me seemed very familiar.  Then I began to realize why.  Throughout my walk with Christ he has invited me to make a small change.  But it didn’t take long in this relationship with him to know that while the change he was asking for wasn’t that big, it inevitably led to a domino effect.  That one small change brought me to a place of another change.  And another.  And another.

The feelings I identified during these past few days related to the rooms are the same ones I’ve felt when Christ has called me to go further up and further in.  I sometimes hesitate because I know it’s not the last of the changes.  Like the changes in the rooms that are dependent upon other changes, the changes God calls me to are often dependent on other changes.  While the process of changing the rooms makes me tired and sore at the end of each day, the end result is immensely satisfying and useful to others.  In the same way, the process of change in my life often leaves me tired and sore, but the end result is immensely satisfying and helpful to others.

If I stop anywhere along the process, whether with the rooms in my home or my growth in Christ, because I am unwilling to make the additional changes brought about by the previous changes, then I cannot complete the house or come to maturity because no room stands in isolation to the others and neither can any areas of my life be cordoned off and isolated from the others.

My life-long prayer has been that God will not stop making the changes in me that move me to be more like Jesus.  It isn’t always fun, but it is always worth it. With eyes wide open I choose to make the change, knowing it won't be the last and, in most cases, I have no idea what's coming next.  It is probably good I don't know about the tile beneath the padding beneath the carpet of my life.  I'd think twice about removing the carpet.