Welcome to Joni and Friends. I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and thanks for spending a few minutes with me. I tell you, there’s not a day that goes by that God’s not telling me something new, something fresh in this wheelchair of mine. And sometimes, well… I just can’t keep this stuff to myself. You know what, I’ve got to “pass it on…”
Like what happened last season. We’ve been doing some major landscaping in our front and back yards. Okay, so I was thinking, “A few new bushes here, a couple of flowers planted there.” Not so with my husband, Ken. He met with our landscaper and they dreamed up this whole plan, right? I kind of left it to them; I just said I wanted rosebushes in a couple of places. Well, what they decided was not what I was expecting…
I came home from work one day and I got out of the van and there was all this noise: there was this earth mover in our backyard, piles of dirt everywhere, big concrete chunks, piping from the sprinkler system, a huge hole where a tree once was. Hello? Like… this is not what I had in mind. My idea was nowhere near as, well… disruptive, nor as dirty. This re-doing our back and front yards was way over-the-top.
Well, I couldn’t help but think of that little earth mover and all those piles of dirt and concrete and piping when I read this thing the other day by C.S. Lewis the other day. Actually, I was re-reading his classic, Mere Christianity. And did it resonate – he wrote, “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what he is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense.
“What on earth is God up to? The explanation is that he is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage, but He is building up a palace because He intends to come and live in it himself.”
Well, I tell you what, C.S. Lewis hit the nail on the head, doesn’t he? God always has a different life for us than the one we dream up, like all that landscaping in the back yard. It was disruptive. God intrudes. He tears aside things, knocks down walls, throws open locked doors, hits the light switch in the dark rooms… We envision our life plan as rather unassuming, rather modest, pretty average, nothing that would require too much disruption, not too many trials or tests. But 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 says, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? … for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.” No decent little cottage for God. He looks at you and he envisions a palace in which he can dwell. God’s Spirit lives inside of you and he’s going to make sure your life is worthy of him dwelling inside your heart.
By the way, you should see our back and front yards now. The place looks so beautiful. Way beyond my little puny vision. And it makes me wonder, is God doing major landscaping in your life right now? Are things a little disruptive? Well, if so, remember, there’s nothing unassuming, modest, or average about your calling as a Christian. So agree with the Lord and his “disruptive” plan for you today. Out with the old; out with those little housebroken sins you’ve domesticated. Let God have his way, for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 91376
© Joni and Friends