Extreme Makeover

Not feeling fabulous today, the annoying cold I've been fighting is trying to go into my chest. So I let myself watch Oprah today. A family in Seattle got a whole new house as part of a "makeover." It was very nice, made me get a little squishy, as those makeover shows always do.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is a big hit at our house. It's really something to see the incredible gift of a new home like that. We love to see the tired and old made beautiful, shiny and new.

This kind of makeover is what God offers us every day. That's what Paul is talking about in Romans 12:2, letting God transform us. "Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." (the New Living Translation)

Why isn't that as moving and exciting as a new house? A house, no matter how fabulous, is temporal. Not permanent. Not eternal. The work of making over our way of thinking, making decisions, our way of living, is certainly extreme, 'eh?

I was also thinking about how we don't really get an idea of how much work is involved on those shows. For example, on Oprah this morning, she asked Nate, her decorator guy, if there were any glitches on this project. His reply? "Millions! It was a nightmare." But we didn't see any of that. No time in an hour to reveal everything.

And we don't like to talk about the work of the transformation of hearts, either. It's not the fun part of the story. Hmmm. But there is real work to be done in me, and there'll be glitches.