Doing and Redoing

I’ve been a manse – dweller for nearly all of my adult life; eight years ago though, Cynthia and I bought a piece of land, paid some very gifted people to put up a shell for us, and proceeded to try our best to turn that shell into a vacation home. And just like that, I became a do – it – yourselfer. There’s been a lot about this process that’s been a lot of fun, beginning with the opportunity to actually doodle a plan on a piece of graph paper. You see, our cottage is our creation. It emerged from who we are and our ideas about how we might show hospitality and even enjoy some rest (when it comes).

Over the March Break we were into yet another project—laying the tile on our laundry room floor. And as with so many of the other projects we’ve tackled, there was a sense at the end that we were seeing something we’d seen before. The vision in our heads was now there before our eyes. It looked just as we’d imagined it, and it looked right.

I have this sense, having become a do – it – yourselfer, that I’m being given a small taste of what God Himself experienced in the act of creation—of being able to look at what you’ve done, what you’ve dreamed, what you’ve planned, and at the end of the day (hopefully, at least), see that it is good.

So what does all this have to do with renewal? Well, eight years in, not only are we still working towards getting this thing finished, we’re also beginning to have to do some things again. Cracks develop in the drywall tape and need to be patched. I smack a few too many mosquitoes on the bedroom wall and the paint needs to be touched up. Now I’m not only a do – it – yourselfer. I’m also a renovator; a make – newer, if you will. Suddenly, I’m trying to put things back the way they were when they were fresh and new even as I try to get other things to the way we always envisioned they would be. In the process, my do – it – yourselfer theology has discovered something about renewal.

To put it as simply as I can, I’m beginning to see God’s work through the eyes of a fellow creator. I understand what it is to work out of a vision for the way things could be (such as Revelation 21 – 22) and out of a passion for the way things once were (Genesis 1).  Renewal, as I see it, is what happens when God’s vision and God’s passion begin to change what is in us, in the church, and in the world. And that’s a job I’m up for helping with in any way God will let me.

I look forward to those coming days of rest and retirement at the cottage, the opportunity to share it with friends and family, and to see our vision made real. But I’m also glad of the work we still have to do in the meantime; glad that the Lord has invited us to be His co – workers, His fellow renovators, by joining Him in the work of renewal.