The rebuilding has begun! Yes, we are pretty excited around here. On the other hand, we will have to put up with the inconveniences of tripping over workers, being temporarily ousted from our offices and classrooms (again!), coughing through the cloud of drywall dust, gagging on the fumes of paint and carpet glue, and waiting on everything to get finished. I guess we could call this a time of inconvenient excitement! I’ve been told that once it is all done it will be like it never happened. Although that may be true, it will never change the fact that the new car has been metaphorically dinged. You see, six months from now when somebody new comes to Calvary they probably won’t notice that we’ve had a flood; they will never realize that all of the flooring on the right side of the building was replaced; neither will they be able to tell that on a Monday morning in January we walked into a mess. That is the beautiful nature of rebuilding and that beautiful nature is true of us spiritually. Let me explain…

Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). In Christ we are brand new! This doesn’t mean that we don’t have a past, it means that God is giving us a future. Through the gospel we get an opportunity at a fresh start; the cross is the beginning of a process whereby God rebuilds our lives. He takes what has been marred by sin and restores it. The restoration doesn’t happen overnight, it is a long, lifetime process we call sanctification.

Paul goes on to explain this lifetime process as “the old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Just like our brand new building that has been “dinged”, we have been “dinged” with sin, only the consequences are much more devastating and the stakes much higher. In the end will people know and see the effects of sin in our lives? To a certain degree the answer is “Yes,” some of the devastation of sinning leaves marks that cannot be erased, but that doesn’t mean we don’t stand on solid ground if we stand at the foot of the cross and let it center our lives.

So, as you see the restoration of the building take place let it be a reminder that God is in the process of restoring your life as well.

Grace & Peace,

Scott