I live in an unfinished house.
If you were to visit my home on any given day, you would see that the trim around the windows still needs painting.
The deck on the back needs to be finished.
There are door frames without doors and then there are doors without trim.
And, some of the rooms sport holes in the ceiling where wiring and light fixtures were intended to go, but never went.
You would likely find blankets and sheets draped over windows as a short term curtain and my microwave that was never wired correctly sports a large yellow extension cord in order to receive power.
There is no carpet or floor covering, just concrete.
And the skeleton of the wooden stairs bear all.
It is not finished. There is much work still to be done.
As you go down stairs, you would see a basement, partly finished, but nowhere near complete. The sheet rock is falling down in random places from the ceiling.
BUT, there are many good things about this home. It provides space for my family to grow and room for my children to run.
We have had many a nights with friends laughing and eating on that deck that lacks finish.
We look forward with hope for the day that the yard is complete with landscaping.
And we anxiously anticipate with excitement the time when that empty, unfinished basement becomes a room for our family to laugh and play and be together.
The light fixtures will eventually be hung, doors will be on the hinges, and the blankets on the windows will surely be replaced with real curtains.
Unfinished. I am much like this house.
I look at my home and then I look at myself, and, I see things that are lacking. Just as the basement needs refinishing, in the depth of my heart I often need God to do a work in me again.
My edges are rough and without trim.
I am unfinished.
As the blanket curtains are hung haphazardly I often do things in life; quick, without thought, just enough to get by.
And like the ugly yellow extension cord hanging near my microwave, many days there is ugliness in my heart that I can’t seem to get rid of.
I am unfinished.
And some days, that ugliness, those shortcomings, the work that still needs to be done in me- it’s frustrating.
I get discouraged.
BUT, just as I look forward with hope, and anticipation for the day that this home is complete. I continue to hope for the day that God will complete His work in me.
Just as I know the days ahead will require work, investment, and time in order to produce a finished house, I know that God will continue working in me, investing in me, remodeling my heart in order to finish what he started.
There are things God has fixed, that need fixing again.
There are pieces of me that need to be made new.
I am unfinished.
BUT, He is working on me.
And for that, I say thank you today. And I have hope. And I keep moving forward.
Phillippians 1:6 “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”
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