This morning, I woke up thinking about pairs of things that cannot coexist: oil and water, faith and fear, character development and comfort zones. The last one is where I am, right now. Recently, while working to repair some drywall in my home, the contractors accidentally damaged my floors. What would have been a simple repair of my walls, now required restoring my floors, which you can’t do without moving out all the furniture. 

And so, to preserve the character of my home and maintain the quality of the floors, we had to remove every piece of furniture in the room for the floors to get refinished. Not one piece of furniture, not a single chair, end table, nothing could remain in the room. Why? Because character development, growth and even maintenance, requires a disruption at the lowest level, the level upon which all other “things” rest. Sometimes that level is the floor of a room. Sometimes, the lowest level is the foundation of a house. Sometimes that lowest level is. . . the heart of a Child of God.

While my physical home was being turned upside down, I was being forced to face some painful times from my childhood that apparently, had not healed as well as I’d allowed myself to believe. I could not ignore the timing and correlation of these events in my life. And, just as I wanted the character of my home to be maintained and I was determined to protect the integrity and quality of my floors, God had some work He wanted to do, in me.

So, very much like my hardwood floors, my emotions got stripped of layers and layers of pain and disappointment that had been covered by the rugs of “staying positive” and the furniture of “just letting it go”. You know that clear coat, the topcoat that protects the floors, but you barely know it’s there? It’s called polyurethane. It’s what lies between your feet, shoes, socks, etc., and the actual wood. My emotional polyurethane had become “holding my peace to keep the peace.” 

When God wants to do something new, normal must stand down. When God wants to do a new thing, He empowers you to say the hard parts — out loud. When God is ready to do a new thing, He allows disruption below the surface to reveal and expose the beauty of a treasure that’s been covered up long enough to deprive others of its power, it’s value and its impact.

They finished restoring my floors, last week! It looks like a new house! As for me, God is still working on me but, I already know business as usual is over. Something’s coming. And if my beautiful floors are any indication of what He’s doing in my life, I’m here for all of it. I pray that you’ll come, too.

But, in the meantime, remember some things cannot coexist: oil and water, faith and fear, character development and comfort zones.

Keep the Faith, LifeSpeakers!

Love,
Wilma

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