Today I'm signing in to share some thoughts about our recent home project, and the floor finishing that I can't wait to renovate- 30 year old linoleum. Oh Linoleum, this wonderous floor covering hailed in the 1970's for its beauty and convenience. By today's standards there is nothing more horrid than having even a few square feet of it in your home. Don't believe me? Just watch a few episodes of house hunters!
Today my husband and I embarked on a milestone in our home! We started renovating the last room in our house, the downstairs bathroom. Our plan was to rip up the floor, tile, paint, and add new finishes. I was so excited to get rid of the remains from the old owners of the house, and put our own spin on the room.
After we took out the toilet and vanity, I started pull up the floor. I was so excited because it seemed to come up relatively pain free! After scoring it with a knife I started pulling on the corners of the plastic and the flooring started to come up no sweat! But as it is with most home projects, what we think will be a quick fix turns into a painstaking process of removing the old before embarking on the new.
There is a big part of me that is completely overwhelmed when projects don't go my way, but this is the part of home renovation that makes me the most proud at the finish line. I can't help it! I love progress, I love watching transformation, even when it means adhesive glue is stuck to every inch of clothing on my body. You see, I had just peeled back the first layer of the linoleum. It turns out that there were several more layers of thin paper glued to the floor that needed to be removed.
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| Old Linoleum |
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| New Tile Floor |
As I watched my husband chip away at the paper backing that refuses to budge, I was reminded of how important progress is, even when it's slow, even when we feel like we're not getting anywhere, and especially when it's messy. It is not a physical issue, it's a heart issue. It's the stuff life is made of: daily battles to plow through the junk of our souls to be able to lay a new foundation. (And we're not just talking about new ceramic tile here!)
"Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness" (Ephesians 4:17-24 ESV).
The truth of the gospel is clear. Christ died to reconcile, but God still desires to do more work in us. Keeping the junk, the bad habits, the secrets and hidden parts of our souls that are the equivalent of an old linoleum bathroom floor in a house that has been made new. Although we will never run out of projects to tackle (1 John 1:8) We should be honest with ourselves about the areas of our lives that we haven't fully surrendered; that still look like our old selves. May we focus on what God is producing in us. May we not shy away from becoming more like Him. And, may we feel renewed, as God's precious creations worthy of His calling.
