Over the last few
months I have been renovating the interior of our home. It has been a slow
process. But what renovations aren’t?
There is a long
distance between a vision of what-might-be and the coming-to-be of that vision.
That’s the great thing about dreams, they’re inspiring enough to get a process
started, but rarely do they prepare you for the hard yards ahead.
My latest favourite
Television programme is Grand Designs on Saturday night. It’s a pain because it
clashes with all the rubbish my two boys want to watch at the same time.
Invariably I draw on my authority as “parent” and banish myself to the sub-standard
TV in the coldest part of the house for a spot of mindless absorption.
Grand Designs reminds
me why we renovate anything. It’s not because we like getting our hands dirty,
it’s to fulfil a dream, a vision. It’s the deep knowledge that once completed
there will be a sense of achievement.
Yet between the vision
and the completed reality there are equations to be solved.
My most hated subject
at secondary school was maths. Of all the terrible things I remember never
learning was the quadratic formula. Despite the fact it made no obvious sense,
I was constantly told it was the gateway to any mathematical future. Learn it
or fail. I chose not to learn it because I was essentially lazy. My career in maths
screeched to a halt.
Renovating means
learning. Learning which wall can be removed and which can’t. Learning that
paint will adhere to some surfaces and a not others. Understanding that despite
the best form of cunning I can muster there is no escaping the hours of boring
work that must be done. Then of course there is the stuff that makes no sense
at all – resource consents!
The most painful lesson
is expressed in the well-worn statement: “once you start, there’s not going
back!” Our house was in very nice condition, just out of date. Once you tear
the first piece of no-longer-available wallpaper and expose the awfulness
underneath – there’s no going back. You start an inexorable journey that screams
to be finished – or your wife does.
It’s not only houses
that need renovating. Every now and then there are bits of our lives that need
a makeover. It might be weight, fitness, attitudes or education. The longer we
leave it the bigger the job becomes. But when it needs to be done it can be
achieved.
How? First a dream and
then one step at a time. Too often we take leaps that are too big and then have
to start again. Jesus said the best things that God starts take time. He used
the illustration of a Mustard Seed. It’s the smallest of seeds but with time a
care will become an enormous tree (and they are). The start and the end are
important – it’s the part in between that we struggle with.
God knows all our
hopes and dreams for transformation. If you start the journey, trust in God and
do the hard work step by step, you will change. Promise!
Digby Wilkinson © 2008