Building it

Years ago I got a hair brained idea to build my own house.  I had previously done a considerable amount of both brickwork and cement work, and a bit of carpentry, so I suppose I felt that made me pretty qualified to build a house.  It helped that I was young, energetic, and had a huge "I can do it" attitude.  I found I had to have a lot of help, because there was a LOT I didn't know.  All that said, it was:

• a huge undertaking
• a slow process (Rome didn't get built in a day)
• a real learning experience
• a job that took a lot of patience
• a task that had built in pit-falls
• an undertaking not without pain at times
• a process in which I made a lot of mistakes along the way
• a situation that therefore required more than its share of do-overs

In the end, despite all of the trying times, it was well worth it.  When completed, the self-satisfaction meter was red-lined and the payoff was beyond my wildest expectations.  I'm proud to say that the house still stands today (no, we don't live in it), and is still a beautiful house.

By the time we reach a time in our lives where we become cognitive of the need to make changes in our lives, to become followers of Christ, we run into a situation similar to that of building a house.  However, in this case we are building a new life....but all of the above that applied to my building a house apply in every measure.  And more.  Just as in building a new house, when we are building a new life (a lifelong process) we have to keep focused on the objective and understand that along the way we will run into things that set us back.  We will become targets of the evil one...a huge stumbling block if we allow it to be.  We have to stay keenly aware of that.  We will get tired of the labor, and we will become disillusioned in ourselves as we press forward.  We just have to keep focused on the end reward for our efforts.....not just a new life, but a new home....heaven.

Maybe you haven't built a new house here on earth.  Hopefully you are building a new life for your forever home.  The one in Heaven.  Are you?