Parallels: Home and Spiritual Renovation—Build Not Just for Yourself

(This is part of a series on what I learned through the process of renovating our home, and the parallels to a life yielded to and experiencing God’s work in renovating our life and spirit)

During our home renovation project, I was also asked to help with other jobs, including building long retaining walls for my oldest son’s front yard and replacing a shower at my mother-in-law’s house. Digging trenches, carrying and stacking heavy blocks, demolishing old shower walls, re-doing plumbing, and finishing a bathroom required a lot of time and hard work. With that stated, it was very gratifying to see the completed projects and knowing that my family would be well-served by the work that was done.

When we are given talents and skills it’s good to put them to use, for ourselves AND for other people.  It’s all too easy to be focused only on our own needs while other people struggle with issues that could be helped by our talents and time.

Helping other people is an investment. We reap benefits when we serve other people—both now and for eternity.

The late Barbara Bush struggled with loneliness while her husband was serving as the US ambassador to China. She reflected that serving people in volunteer work was helpful in overcoming her loneliness. Why? Because her focus moved off of her problems onto helping other people.

Serving others who are in need also has an eternal benefit. Jesus instructed us to store up treasures in heaven that won’t rust, get eaten away, or stolen (Matthew 6:19-20).  I know the home renovation work I have completed today will sometime in the future need to be renovated again—or even demolished. It’s the nature of the world we live in.  However, investing in other people’s lives reaps benefits that follow us into eternity.

Jesus made this clear when he said,

“Whatever you do to the least of these you also do to me”. (Matthew 25:40)

To be clear, we don’t earn our way in heaven by the good things we do, because our very nature is marred and unfit to stand before God. The good news is that Jesus took care of that for us by his death and resurrection, so we only need to receive this free gift from Him.

When we experience life with Jesus we will be stirred and empowered to serve and help others. I am convinced that when we enter eternity we will be shown, in ways beyond our understanding, how God used our gifts and skills in His loving plan for other people in our world. Furthermore, we also become better!

In short. we become more and more renovated by God as we help and serve other people. 

Home and spiritual renovation is not only about building walls for our own benefit—it’s also about building bridges to God and other people.

God bless you!

Chris Atkins