Demolition and Rebuilding

The other day I was working in the entryway of this hundred-year-old house painstakingly removing layers and layers of paint from the beadboard, trim, and doors. I have been working on this same project for the last three to four weeks. When I first started I was excited to find what treasure might lie underneath, what kind of wood had the original builders used, what would the grain look like, would it be the same all the way through or were different types used as they had to replace a door or one finial or door moulding? About a week ago I became despondent. "It's taking too long. I still have the library and the ceiling in the living room, the stairs and the wainscot leading up the stairs to strip. I'll never get done. Maybe I'd be better off just painting it all white and be done with it." Oh, how tempting it was to give in that day. Instead I set the job aside and decided to just work on one door a day, or one small section and not look at the overwhelming task before me.
Yesterday I reflected on how easy the demolition had been. It took us only three days to completely gut most of the downstairs, tearing down walls, brick fireplace fronts, an entire kitchen, a laundry room down to the studs. Two days later we brought a crew of four guys in and they ripped out all the floors downstairs, the subfloor and the joists. Everything but the foundation was gone. We were looking at the ground the house had stood on for over 100 years. We had stripped this old house down to its' skeleton in four days. What we found under what seemed to be a sturdy, solid, well-built home was not good. The plumbing in the kitchen had rotted through the pipes and when you turned it on it bubbled like a miniature fountain on the dirt below our kitchen leaving little reflective pools near each break in the line. The joists were termite eaten and were no longer adequately supporting the house. The foundation was set on large rocks stacked on the surface of the earth that had settled from supporting the weight of the house for so long leaving it three and one-half inches off level.
Then the rebuilding began. It hasn't been swift like the demolition was. In actuality it has been very, very slow. I liken it to what seems to be going on in our personal life right now and the lives of so many friends I have talked to. The Lord is moving in a mighty way and it has stripped us to the core of our being. It has driven us to our knees praying for mercy, it has caused us to look at who we are and most times not been happy with what we have found. I look at the demolition as an unkind word spoken to my children, or a terse word spoken to my husband in haste and watch the hurt in their eyes as they turn away. It was swift and complete and only took a word. I have seen the hand of God working in my oldest son. Peeling away layers of hurt and pain covered by the sins of a teenage experience heaped on by the loss of his brother Luke when he was only four. The process is slow and painful. I watch him working through all the emotions and finally coming to grips with all he lost and can only pray the Lord will bring His peace and comfort to rest on his troubled soul.
So we are once again rebuilding. We have been stripped and look to the Creator of all things to do a work in us, to bring us to the place He has in store for us, to build our faith, to run and not be weary, to look at what we are going through with anticipation not dread.
If you are at this point in your lives then may I commend you. The Lord is at work making you and I better fit to serve in His kingdom. Don't give in to the temptation to cut the process short, allow the Lord to strip you down to your foundation. Allow the Master Builder to get all the way down to the studs. Pray the rebuilding, although painstakenly slow, will make you stronger, more patient, more giving and the end result, at least in this remodel, will be beautiful in the eyes of our Lord and Saviour.