BROKEN DOWN HOUSES

Imagining The Possibilities in a Life

When I was a child my father took me and my sisters to this old house near the city park. It was falling down and not much to look at. I wasn't very old at the time, perhaps 8 or 9 and for me it was an adventure to explore. I was fascinated by it, and to be honest a little afraid that the floor would collapse under my feet. Daddy seemed to love this house, or maybe his excitement was that he could see the potential in it. I think it was his love of old things which he passed on to me. I love history, including historical sites, buildings and yes, old cars. I can see what they were made to be.

Daddy loved to go to antique car shows. They reminded him of his childhood. He would reminisce over cars as we walked through the Model T Fords, Studebakers, Nashes and Packards. It was like he was seeing them brand new and on the showroom floor. He didn't see the dents, and imperfect upholstery like I did. He saw through the eyes of the young boy he was when these cars were all new. He had a story to tell about each one. "Dad owned one of these." "This was my first car." "Poppop own one like this when your mom and I met." I loved to hear his stories. It was a connection we had that still means a lot to me even 20 years after his passing.

When I was 36, my husband and I bought an old Victorian home in small town Minnesota. It was very run down. I still remember the day he showed it to me. The asking price was $17,500. I was skeptical, but it was like walking into my dad's head. I could see the potential in this house. I started immediately formulating a plan for what I would do to it. We hadn't even purchased it. We were just looking.

I wondered what had happened in the house to cause it to become run down. Who were the first owners back in the 1800s? When did it fall into such disrepair and why? The history of the house was a puzzle I would never figure out, though I did meet a couple who had rented the house when they first married years before. She was stunned to see how run down it had become, but delighted that someone was taking the time to fix it up. Her first child had been born when they lived there. It held precious memories for her.

I'm not going to lie and say I was ready for the work ahead. It was a long arduous project that brought with it some quarrels and frustrations, but we were determined to finish what we had started. As an artist I loved the blank canvas I was given. As a puzzle solver I enjoyed the challenges that sprang up along the way, most of them.

We started with the foundation. The foundation contractor we called said, "it is on solid rock for most of the house. The area under the kitchen will need some work." Once the foundation was fixed under the kitchen we started working on tearing out rotten lathe and plaster that was crumbling. We discovered that the house was built in two phases. The original Victorian era house was added to years later. There was a large set of french doors that had been plastered over. We also discovered old news papers stuffed in the walls for insullation. Little by little problems were addressed. It wasn't an "all at once" process. It was a slow rebuild. The progression was fun to watch and with each improvement we were closer to our goal.

After 2 years and a lot of hard work and arguments over construction and asthetics, it was finished. What I had imagined on that first day was now a reality. We moved in and everyone wanted to see what we had done including the county assessor. Our $17,500 house was now appraised at over $65,000. The appraiser said that his friend was thinking of buying it to tear it down and start new, but he was glad that we bought it and returned it to its Victorian grace.

I was reminded of this time in my life recently when I read a simple post on Facebook. It said, "If you are a Christian, and you realize when you see a messed up person, its like the ruins of a castle. You say, "Oh, how I would love to see this thing restored. Imagine what it could be like."

I began to think and question, "Is this what I see when I see a messed up person? Do I see the potential in their lives?"

I started looking back over my life and recalling the relationships I have had with so many who were lost, hurting, broken and messy. One such person I think about often was Pauline. She was my neighbor. She had an alcohol addiction that was literally killing her. I have written about her here. I recall the night God woke me up and as I was checking the time on my phone she was calling for help. My heart broke for her every day. I would sit with her while she was going through the shakes from alcohol withdrawl. Her mind was disheveled with incoherent thoughts. I prayed with her numerous times and shared the gospel with her. I held her while she poured out her history of abuse and we cried together. I could see in her the potential beauty and the woman God had created her to be. She was in there, but the dilapidated state of her life was hindering her potential. She needed the master builder to rebuild what was falling apart around her. She needed my heavenly father.

Just like when I was with my earthly father looking at old cars or walking through that old run down house next to the park, I caught his vision. It is the same when I am walking with my heavenly father. The closer I am to Him, the more of HIS vision of a person I can see. There are many people like this in my life, past and present. I imagine there will be more people like this as I travel through life. It is hard for me not to see the potential in people. I am, after all, my father's daughter.

Imagine Jesus standing in front of a run down life. He knows the potential. He knows what their life could be and should be. Imagine Jesus bringing you along the path of that run down person so that you can introduce them to the master builder, the one who can make all things new. We don't walk in this world without a purpose. We have been given the spirit of Christ so we can see as He sees, those who need Him most. We are all houses of clay that are broken, dusty, empty and in need of someone to redeem them and help them to be that beautiful creation they were intended to be.

When I sat in my remodeled victorian house there was such peace and beauty where nothing but cobwebs, broken windows and filth had stood 2 years earlier. Man had given up on that house, just like we give up on people. God renews and revives lives of the broken, and even the lives of the wicked. I recently saw a video clip of a man named Jelly Roll giving praise to God on stage of an awards show. He is a successful musician, but had a history of crime, drug and alcohol addiction. His house was a shambles, even though he had success in the eyes of the world. He was empty and needed the master builder to remodel the inside of his house. His house was so broken that his only hope was God. He said, "Jesus is for everyone! Everyone can have a relationship with him!" How right he is.

These journeys we are all on take us in many different directions. Storms come and we make choices. The house that is founded on the rock is the one that withstands the storms. So many human houses are built on sand and are crumbling beneath the weight of sin. The master builder rebuilds us on the rock so we can live as HE designed. Once the foundation has been repaired the real work begins. The transformation can sometimes take the world by surprise as it has with Jelly Roll, and sometimes it makes a difference only to a small group of people who watched the house crumble and were helpless to fix it.

What a stunning picture of the love of God that makes all things beautiful in HIS time.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 "He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end."

Hebrews 11:10 "For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God."

2 Corinthians 5:1 "For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands."