Demolition Crew

I love home improvement television. Weekend Warriors, Room by Room, Curb Appeal, you name it, I love it. There is one particular show on Sunday evenings that I especially enjoy. It introduces us, the viewers, to a deserving family chosen to receive a total extreme home makeover. The family is usually surprised to a loud "HELLO ......FAMILY" and then whisked off to a dream vacation while the construction of a new home takes place. There is always a point in their vacation that the family gathers around a small computer screen to watch as the host zooms his camera in on the demolition of their old home. The scene is characterized by the crushing swing of a wrecking ball, tumbling walls, dust clouds hovering in the air, and a host scurrying from the debris. The response of the family varies but often includes a gasp and even a little weeping as they watch their old home crumble to the ground. I sometimes think "seriously, you are about to get the home of your dreams and you are crying as you watch that dilapidated old thing fall?"

But then I remember. I remember having similar responses to my own personal stronghold demolition. Not all strongholds but, though it may sound strange, some strongholds are often like an old rickety home for us. Why would we want to hold onto anything that keeps us from freedom, keeps us from the full life that God has planned for us? It may be a battered, broken-down, decaying half-life. Yet sometimes, it is all we know, and we grieve its loss. And so it goes, our own clinging to the stronghold allows it to stay another day. And again I think to myself "seriously? ".

But here is the good news, this very demolition, if we will allow it to take place, leads to the rebuilding of something so much better! And the weapons used to demolish the strongholds? They are no ordinary "weapons of the world". These weapons have "divine power"!

So when I am bemoaning the annihilation of some old familiar stronghold, I will remember. I will remember that Christ "loved me and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20). I will remember to "throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles," so that I can "run with perseverance the race marked out for"me (Hebrews 12:1). I will remember that"the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God" (Rom 8:21). And I will remember that glorious freedom begins when I stop clinging. I will remember to let the demolition begin!
Praise Him!