As most of you know I am in the midst of trying to sell my house. What a process that can be but it also sheds new light on our Christian walk. So let’s explore those similarities in our short time together.

The first process in getting your house ready to be put on the market, or at least for me, was to paint needed areas, make some necessary repairs, and get things looking nice, clean, and new. This took a couple weeks for me as I put on a new roof, painted and repaired some ceiling issues in the one bedroom, and remodeled the kitchen.

This, I believe, is very similar to what happens to us at salvation, God’s way of getting us ready to show us off to all. God has to come in and “re-paint”, or what the Bible says “put off” and “put on” concept, in certain areas that gets us ready. There are times, in my life I know, where there has been some remodeling that has to take place. Whether this is an attitude adjustment, habit to break, or some unlearning to take place, God does the work in us so he can show others him through us.

The next step in the process to show my home is also an ongoing one, to clean the whole house and make it look good. After all the work had been done Manda and I armed ourselves with rags, mops, cleaning supplies and the like to clean the house from top to bottom. No place was left untouched; it all got cleaned.

After God completed His major “remodeling” in my life, he then proceeded to clean me up. The next stop in becoming more like Christ is what some call sanctification. Here the process can be more painful than the remodeling in our lives. You see with the remodeling there are areas that we see need to be fixed and something done with them. However when God starts cleaning you and me up, there is bound to be areas that he uncovers that we don’t want to be messed with. Just as in my house there was not an area untouched. God, too, will go through your life and touch areas that we may not want his hands on.

Once this step is completed my house was ready to be shown for the first time. Yet I ran into problems. When my house was clean and nice, no one wanted to come and see it. When my house was a little out of place and needed a quick cleaning, the call would come saying someone wants to see it. I then had to rush home and clean up real quick the areas that got dirty and make sure my house was ready to be shown.

I think that is very similar to our lives and what happens to us. On our own we get cluttered up again just from the everydayness of life. We try to keep ourselves “presentable” but don’t always do it. There are events that make us want to get cleaned up; Sunday services, a funeral, wedding, communion, etc. We then hustle around in our life and try to look better than we were just a day or so prior. We think once we’re done we can then be “shown” to all who want to see us.

The problem with this is that God doesn’t want to show us just sometimes, unlike the showing of a house, but always. I believe that is partly the reason that Paul said, “Whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” in his first letter to the Corinthians.

We are always on display whether we think so or not. All of our actions exhibit who we believe God to be. Our life speaks volumes as to who God is, maybe more so to some than the Word of God itself. The question is: what are you saying? Remember that unlike selling a house when you can say yes or no to showing, with God you are always on show. Are you ready?