neighborhood

I was walking through a residential area near my condo several months ago and was paying close attention to the many gorgeous homes of all colors, shapes, and sizes. There were brick homes, two-story homes, ranch style homes and on and on. It was a wonderful neighborhood with homeowners walking their dogs down the street and children playing in their front yards. What caught my eye on this particular day was something I didn’t expect to see. Sandwiched in between all these model homes was a decrepit, ugly home in dire need of repair. The home was obviously abandoned and was in need of a tremendous amount of renovation. I’m certainly no home repair expert, but there was no question that this home would require a lot of time and money to make it comparable to the other surrounding homes. It was actually depressing to see what was probably a beautiful home in such disrepair, especially sitting amongst the other spectacular homes.

Not more than two weeks after I originally spotted the damaged home, I suddenly noticed a flurry of activity taking place. All of a sudden, the home was surrounded by construction crews and equipment with workers moving in and out and around the home. This abandoned home was now a beehive of activity. There were roofers and carpenters and painters. Obviously, someone had purchased the abandoned home and was spending a lot of money to make the necessary repairs and make the home livable once again.

I followed the construction progress and the efforts of the many, many workers over the course of the next several weeks. It was amazing how the former eyesore of the neighborhood was being transformed into a magnificent new mansion. What was once viewed as ruins was now coming to life in the form of a gorgeous new home.

I often think of my own Christian journey of faith and still stand amazed at how God has transformed my life. Arguably, my life was like the shack I saw in our neighborhood—in disrepair and in need of some tender loving care. God entered my life and transformed me into the person I am today. What God has done in my life is nothing short of a miracle but the true miracle is that HE can do the same thing for you.

You may be looking at your own life and feeling like you don’t quite fit in. You look around and you see others who appear to be smarter than you or better than you at something or, perhaps, seem to always get ahead in life. You see others who always get the breaks and you seemingly want to raise your hands toward God and wave wildly while telling HIM, “Hey God, remember me!” I know how you feel; I’ve been there myself.

As the renovation of the old home in my neighborhood was nearing completion, I noticed something truly startling. The entire look of the home had changed. A garage was added. A front porch was added. New landscaping was completed. New siding was added. Bright, new colors were used. Having known what the home looked like before, I was amazed at its transformation. I know homes don’t talk, but it was almost as if the home was proud of itself once again and what it had become at the hands of others.

God can do a similar transformation in your own life. Don’t focus on others and what may be happening in their lives. Don’t focus on what you haven’t done or mistakes you’ve made. Instead, focus on what God has, can, and will do in your own life. Allow the master carpenter to mold and shape you as never before and you’ll quickly see your own life move from ruins to royalty.

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I loved the neighborhood our family lived in during my Elementary School years. Now, granted, this was in the 1960’s and times have changed, but it was a wonderful time and place. All the neighborhood kids knew each other; even the parents knew each other. We couldn’t get into too much trouble because other parents would call my parents and—well—–the rest was history as they say. Times have certainly changed. Most of us don’t even know our neighbor’s names today.

We would stay outside and play from sun-up to sun-down. It was football, then basketball, then we would “play army,” then we might ride our bikes complete with baseball cards clipped to the spokes so we would sound like motorcycles. No video games for us. We had to entertain ourselves and didn’t ever seem to have any difficulty doing so.

One of the things my friends and I loved to do was walk from my house to a Shopping Center that was behind our neighborhood. Occasionally, we got our hands on a shiny new Quarter or sometimes a Dime and you would have thought we had a million dollars. At that time, a Dime or Quarter would buy a week’s supply of Pixie Stix or Hubba Bubba or Milk Duds, or maybe a Nutty Buddy or Eskimo Pie. No one during those times had any reservations about letting a group of kids walk alone up to this Shopping Center for our shopping spree.

It was a fairly long walk from our house to the Shopping Center IF we walked the long way around on the major streets. We soon discovered that there was a narrow storm drainage ditch that ran between two houses in the neighborhood that miraculously opened up in the back of the Shopping Center. We would cut through this drainage ditch and be at the Shopping Center much quicker. All we had to do was walk around to the front of the buildings and we were there!! Suddenly, the “shortcut,” as we called it, was the greatest discovery since Lewis and Clark went West. You would have thought we had discovered Gold. Being able to get to the all important Shopping Center within a few short minutes, as opposed to taking 45 minutes, when we walked the long route, was life changing for Elementary School kids.

It wasn’t very long after our great discovery that we began realizing the “shortcut” may not have been as great of a discovery as we first thought. We began getting scratched by briers and cut by broken glass. We sometimes ran into stray animals and neighborhood “bullies” who hid in the bushes waiting for us. We tripped and fell. We soon became faced with a decision of whether we wanted to take our chances with the “shortcut,” not knowing what was lurking for us, just to save a few minutes, or go ahead and take the safer route, even though it was much longer. Most of us chose the longer, safer route. It just wasn’t worth the trouble.

Our Christian life is much the same way, or at least mine has been at times. I tried to take the shortcut with my prayer life and only began praying when I thought I needed prayer. I slowly realized that I couldn’t take a shortcut with my prayer life. I tried to read my Bible only occasionally, mostly on Sunday’s when the Pastor asked us to. I slowly realized that I needed God’s Word every day, not just once a week. I discovered that there are no shortcuts with God. He wants our all, ALL the time. When we take shortcuts with God, danger is only a short distance behind.

Is your Christian Life taking too many shortcuts? You can change that starting today.

Choose to Let Your Ruins Come to Life

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Avoiding the Shortcut To Trouble

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