This past week I finally tackled a project that has been on my "honey do" list for quite some time...finishing our master bathroom. We added on to our home years ago. Having run out of energy and funds this final addition sits, mothballed, gradually becoming the dumping ground for seldom used treasures.
Well, this last Sunday, thanks to a block of free time, a spurt of energy and a littleprodding...uhh...encouragement from my wife, I enthusiastically dove in, intent on crashing through this project in record time. I mean, after all, I remodeled an entire house a few years ago, how much trouble could a little bathroom be? A great deal, as it turns out. It's not that I didn't go into this with a plan, it's just that, in my impatience to get started, I didn't take the time to make sure my plans and my actual house would cooperate. To use a coined phrase, I had a serious case of "irrational exuberance."
Well, this last Sunday, thanks to a block of free time, a spurt of energy and a little
My first task was to frame up a couple of walls. No big deal, right? Except, after laying down the base plate and a couple of studs, I realized that the configuration of the floor trusses were going to require me to relocate some major plumbing connections, right beneath the wall I was framing. To get at them, I would need to tear up the floor. You guessed it. My newly erected wall came down. So, wall down and 3 X 5 foot square opening cut in the floor, I began to fit pieces of drain pipe together. I was mid way through this endeavor when it hit me; the pipe I planned to route through the wall, to my sink, and up through the roof were too large for the size of the studs. So, you guessed it, apart came the drain pipe. Thankfully I hadn't glued anything yet. It was just a dry test run.
In the end, the only work I actually accomplished that day was two hours spent in the plumbing department of our local hardware store, staring at various sizes and configurations of drain pipe fittings. Oh well, there's always next Sunday.
In the end, the only work I actually accomplished that day was two hours spent in the plumbing department of our local hardware store, staring at various sizes and configurations of drain pipe fittings. Oh well, there's always next Sunday.
Sometimes our struggle against sin can seem a little like that can't it? We launch into this project of becoming like our Elder Brother with great zeal, building walls and piecing together the plumbing of our character, and just when we think we're ready to move on to the next phase, we realize that the work we've done wasn't as thorough as we thought. The same weaknesses we believed we had once and for all overcome resurface, forcing us to go back and tackle them once again. It can be discouraging to say the least.
Paul expressed the discouragement we all experience with overcoming perhaps better than anyone:
Romans 7:14 - 25 "For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. ...For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. ...I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?"
Reading this after my struggles with our bathroom, I can almost envision Paul exclaiming while tearing down a wall he just erected with a sledge hammer, "O...crash, bang...wretched....pound, crack...man that I...crush, grunt....am!"
Maybe the purpose of all this overcoming we are supposed to do in this life is to lead us to the same conclusion. No matter how hard we struggle against our sinful nature; no matter how much effort and zeal we expend; we can never fully eradicate it from our lives. We will always be, in a sense, tearing down, rebuilding, tearing down again. Bottom line: We are wretched.
But Paul didn't leave us, to quote a line from one of my favorite movies, in the "pit of despair" spiritually. He goes on to answer his own question, and what an encouraging answer it is.
Romans 7: 25 - "I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin."
Isn't that really the lesson of the Days of Unleavened Bread that are soon approaching? While Passover brings us into remembrance of the death of our Savior, and our entering into a covenant relationship with Him, Unleavened Bread reminds us of our continual need for His life living in us and through us.
In preparation for those days, we attempt to remove all of the leaven, the biblical symbol for sin, from our lives. Anyone who has undertaken this process seriously has discovered that it's pretty much impossible to get all of the leaven out. Somehow, no matter how determined our effort, a slice of bread or a packet of yeast gets overlooked. We just can't eradicate all of the sin from our lives. But really, isn't that the point of the exercise?
If the Days of Unleavened Bread were only about getting the leaven out, it would be quite the discouraging observance. We would all be left exclaiming with Paul, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death?"
Thankfully, we aren't left there. In fact, it isn't even the main focus. God gives us these days, not to discourage, but to encourage us. The days of self-examination and recognition of our wretched sinful nature are quickly followed by a powerful reminder of His righteousness and power living within us through His Son. For seven days, we are commanded to take in of unleavened bread. We take in, symbolically, of Jesus Christ, the Unleavened Bread of sincerity and truth. His life in us, His sacrifice, continually covering our sinful, weak, backsliding nature, making possible our continued access to and relationship with the Father. It's an awesome reminder that it is He who works in us both to do and to will of His good pleasure.
I've got quite a bit more work left to do on our master bathroom. But I know that regardless of how many stops and starts lay ahead, regardless of how many hours I will spend tearing down and rebuilding walls and walking the aisles of the local hardware store, the outcome isn't in doubt. With a little determination and continued prodding...err...encouragement from my wife, it will eventually get finished. My effort to become like my Elder Brother...now that's a different story. I'll keep working at it but thankfully my effort isn't responsible for the outcome. He's a much better Master Builder than I am.
----