We are in the business of restoration. We buy old buildings (that are usually sitting empty) and we revitalize them. Most people drive by these dilapidated places and either ignore them or think. . . what a shame that place has gone to ruin. We on the other hand pull over, get out of the car and look around. We peer in the windows and instead of seeing broken and ugly—we see potential.

You know who else is in the business of restoration? God!

He doesn’t drive by broken, ruined people and keep on driving. Nope. He pulls over to the side of the road and gets out. He comes over and peers in our soul and he sees potential. He sees someone who can be redeemed.

We recently bought an old elementary school. (It’s our second school.) I actually made a couple videos if you want to check it out. See school here (Warning: my first videos ever.) This project will need a lot of work. A. Lot. Of. Work. The building has sat empty for decades. The windows are broken, the doors don’t shut, the walls are crumbling . . . I could go on and on. Everything needs attention. It needs a complete overhaul. Most people who see the building get a kind of wide-eyed look of panic. Like this is so much work, is it even possible?

I can relate to this building. How about you? Have you allowed fear to blow through and knock out your windows? Have anxiety and worry moved in and begun building nests, wreaking havoc in the corners of your mind? Has life taken its toll?

Yet, God does not just do a drive-by. Instead, he sees what we could be; how much value we have even in our state of brokenness.

What’s exciting about the restoration of anything, be it a building, art work, or people—is the transformation. We all love a makeover story. If we bought the school and did nothing with it; well, that wouldn’t be noteworthy. The exciting part, the part everyone wants to see is the change. Sanded floors, painted walls, a whole new layout is what gets us talking. Show me the before and after picture so I can see how far you have come in the renovation.

We are all in need of a renovation. Sometimes it’s just the wear and tear of daily life. A baby keeping you up at night or maybe a teenager. New responsibilities at work that are out of your skill set. Caring for an aging parent. You are tired and could use a new coat of paint, but there is no time. Or perhaps storms have been brewing and you’re starting to take on water. A hurting child, a floundering business or a crumbling marriage and all you can do is stick a bucket under the leak.

Then there are tornadoes, hurricanes and fires. Where life comes to a screeching halt and leaves you feeling gutted. Tragedies, abuses and losses have damaged us to a point that we feel we won’t recover. It will take more than some weekend projects to restore us. Our faith has storm damage. All our defenses are down and we aren’t sure where to start or if we even want to start.

Yet, God is not willing to drive by us and shake his head. The opposite in fact, He is tenderhearted and full of mercy. He is the Master Restorer. He invented redemption. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Jn 3:16 My husband and I get really excited when we see a cool old building that is in disrepair because we see the potential. God made you. He gifted you. He created you for a purpose. Your makeover through Him is meant to bring God glory. When we makeover an old building, we don’t say, look at what this building did? It fixed itself. No, we say look at what we did. We did all this work and now behold its beauty.

It is only through God that we can come into our full potential of who He made us to be. Then we can say, look at what God did in my life. I was broken and damaged and He fixed me. I could never do this outside of His power. The Lord not only patches the leaks, but puts on a whole new roof so the floods of despair do not overwhelm me. He chases away the vermin that nibble at my hope. He washes my windows so I can see the perfect view (of heaven) and he paints me in a fresh coat of joy. The Lord goes beyond just restoration and brings new life. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. . . 2 Cor 5:17 God plants trees so I can have the fruits of the Spirit and become a person God can use for His good purpose. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters . . .her leaf shall be green . . . and shall not cease from yielding fruit. Jer 17:7-8

Our school will become a home, a dwelling where people can be protected from the elements. We will do our best to make it beautiful, not only on the outside, but mostly on the inside (where it counts). God wants us to be a space for other people to go and feel loved and protected. I want to have a heart for others, an ear to hear my brothers’ struggles and a tongue to speak encouragement and truth. We don’t want to fix up that school and have it sit empty. And God’s healing and restoration work is so I can, in turn, provide a place of comfort and peace (that is, Christ through me) to those in my life.

Restoration is a process!

So is the work God does in our hearts.

He restoreth my soul . . . Ps 23

Follow along as I hope to write more articles about restoration. As we move forward on our school building project I can’t help but think about the different stages of rehabbing our life and hearts. When redoing a physical space we need to clear out the junk that has rotted and accumulated, causing more problems the longer they sit. Like a mid-century building, we too, need restoration—but in our hearts—to manage the upkeep of our souls and to be useful to others. But before a developer or flipper can do any work on a building, they must first purchase the property.

Do you know you were bought at a great price? We got a great deal on our school building, but God paid the ultimate price. The life of His Son. He paid in blood to own the deed to your soul. He said you are worth everything to me. I don’t care how ruined and useless you feel, I will pay top dollar for you. God sent his Son to buy all the property rights so we would all have access to his care. He is the Master Restorer, the Ultimate Caregiver and He can rebuild and repurpose your life like no one else. His services are available to all who ask. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Mt 11:28

Unlike a building on the side of the road, we must answer the knock on the door and say yes, come in and then everything will be transformed.

God loves a project.

He will come in to blast away the rot and take our hearts down to the studs, if we will let him.

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We all have vulnerable spots. I’m sensitive to bright lights, as everyone in my life will attest. I have never met a dimmer switch I didn’t love. We have two light switches in my bathroom. One goes to a lovely muted luminary that bathes the room in soft warm colors. The other activates three fluorescent lights that are equivalent to the white hot glow of an operating room. I never ever use that light. It feels like a direct switch to a headache. I don’t care if I have something in my eye or need to remove a sliver out of a child’s foot, it will be done in that low lighting. While the rest of my family uses this other light switch without a thought; they even seem to enjoy all the extra eye-popping brightness.

In the same way my eyes are sensitive to bight lights, my emotions also have weak spots. Things that have happened to me in the past have caused wounds. Like when people talk about sisters, it sometimes feels like a prick. I have to quietly deal with a wound that no one can see. I lost a sister. So, when someone starts causally talking about plans they have with their sister or how they talk everyday or even how annoying they might be, I can’t help but feel that loss. Time has healed much of that wound, but it’s still there. Nobody means to hurt me, of course. Some days it doesn’t even phase me, but other days it cuts; but I just keep smiling and nodding. I don’t want my friends to not mention their sisters.

Perhaps all your friends are getting married and you just experienced a terrible breakup. How do you get through those wedding showers and sit at a table with your parents pretending to be happy when inside you are hurting? You can’t ask people to not get married, you can’t not be happy for them. But there is a wound there that nobody can see. We have all had losses. A friend mentions how her dad fixed her car and you never even met your dad. A wound is touched. Your co-worker is buying a house when you are thinking you might have to move back home to save money. You started a ministry that can’t seem to get any funding while others seem to flourish. We try to hide our invisible hurts, so no one sees us flinch when when they talk about their spouse, their baby, their job . . .

The Enemy Hits Us Where it Hurts the Most

The places we feel like we aren’t enough are the places the enemy hits hardest, because it does the most damage—the quickest. If you were in a fight with a guy who had a broken arm, where are you going to punch him? In the place that will bring him to his knees. We are in a spiritual battle and our adversary does not play fair! You have a difficult child who is hard to parent, where will you get attacked? There! Someone will point out what you are doing wrong (when they don’t know anything about it). And bam! The enemy has you reeling. Your marriage is struggling and someone will go on about how great their marriage is and how it just gets better every year while yours seems to get harder. A hit in just the right spot. You feel stuck in your office job and are wondering about purpose when your roommate from college calls to announce they are opening their own business. You are glad this conversation is over the phone so they can’t see your face while you take the hit.

We do not feel the punches in our strong areas. If you rock at your job or have an easy marriage or are about to get a book published, comments can be made and they just roll off because you know they aren’t true. We are attacked in the vulnerable places. In the spots we worry about or the areas we carry a hurt or that secret fear. How do you recover when you are punched in a broken spot? Those comments can take your breath away, make you lose your footing. You want to just lay on the ground. It’s easy to be mad at that person or the situation, but we need to remember that it’s often the enemy at work and this is what he does. If you are in a knife fight, you can’t be surprised when you get cut. Yet, I find myself surprised. Like . . . “hey, that hurt!”

Don’t be Mistaken: We Are in A Battle

This life is a battle; it isn’t practice, it’s the real thing. We are in active combat. This is why the Bible instructs us to pray on the amour of God each day (Ephesians 6). Not because we are going to spar with a friend, but because we are in battle everyday—if we like it or not (1 Peter 4:12). So, when the enemy (through that guy at work or even your sweet grandma) says just the right thing, that speaks to your biggest hurts and fears you can know immediately you are in a fight for your emotions and your heart. The point is to take you down. To make you doubt God’s love (If God loved me, would I have lost my sister?). To make you doubt your calling (I’m not good at talking about my faith, maybe I should just be quiet). To make you doubt the hard things (someone else would be a better parent to this child). To make you doubt your purpose (Shouldn’t I find happiness in my family/job/ministry—maybe there is something more?).

As if the hard things shouldn’t be hard.

As if the struggles can and should be avoided.

As if the lies are true.

We must be ready for battle. We must suit up and pray up and read up. The Bible will instruct you; the prayers will empower you; the Holy Spirit will lead you. You have everything you need to fight the good fight. But you will get hurt. Nobody goes into war thinking they will emerge the same. They will be shot at, wounded and hardened by the blows of the enemy. From each battle we emerge with more experience (2 Tim 2:4). I know if I don’t start my day in prayer, I’m already set up for some blows. It’s not that prayer stops the blows; actually, I think it often “ups” them, but I’m ready to handle them.

If we are wounded, it is much harder to keep fighting. We often need others to drag us to safety. We need to go to the medic. Who is our Great Physician? Who is the Healer of our souls? The very One who created us, will also heal us. When we bring our soul wounds to Him, our Lord and Savior will do a great work in us. Sometimes it is major surgery (which could be preformed under the lights in my bathroom!). When we come to Christ, our loving Father lays us out and removes our hearts of stone and give us new hearts.

Ezekiel 36:26-27

“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

Nobody questions the major undertaking of a heart transplant. Getting a new spiritual heart is pretty major, also. It changes our life in dramatic ways. Things that used to bring us pleasure become dull, as we shift from a selfish worldly view to an eternal spiritual view. There are aspects of this change that happen suddenly. I once sat with a friend in my home and could see the heaviness of her past etched in her face; yet, a few moments later when she came to the Lord, it was instantly lifted. One of the first things she said after we prayed was, “The heaviness is gone!” She didn’t need to tell me. I could see it in her face. She met her Saviour and he removed her heavy heart and put in a living/beating heart that pushed blood through her soul into places that were formally crippled.

Other changes come on slowly, over years as our new hearts pump the oxygenated blood of new life to parts of our souls we thought were dead. Healing soul wounds that were caused by sin done to us, sin we fell into, perhaps, because of a family cycle of hurt or a temptation that we thought would soothe our wounds. But, in fact, it deepened the damage. I have been walking with the Lord several decades and just in the last few years, I have come to realize some of the places I carry wounds. Instead of letting air and light get to them where they can heal, I instinctively hide them, keeping them in the dark where they fester and spread into other aspects of my life.

Let the Healing Begin

I asked the Holy Spirit to expose them, so I could pray for the healing I didn’t even understand I needed. The wounds I had wrapped up in the loss of my sister were many and painful. There are ways I unknowingly respond to life—reacting in hurt or depression, never connecting it back to that vulnerable spot. God has removed much of that weight, just by exposing it. When something pricks me, I can say I know why this hurts. I don’t want to react in a way that brings me low. I can feel sad. I can feel the loss. But, I don’t want my reactions to be something that causes me to sin or causes me to pull back when I should be pushing in.

What soul wounds do you have in your life?

Can you connect some of your seemingly odd or extreme reactions to that hurt?

What if you asked the Lord to start healing those spots?

The Lord keeps showing me that He is enough. His grace is sufficient. The things I think I need to be okay are the very places He will fill. The hurts are a reminder that this world is not home. I have a promise that I will see my sister again (along with others gone ahead). Meanwhile, He has brought women into my life that I call sister . . .and my heart fills. I stand up in their weddings and the program says—sister to the bride. And that wound closes a little. I have a group of women in my life that are as dear to me as sisters. We have a depth in our relationships that I imagine is as deep as a blood sister (and perhaps deeper in some cases). That spot is very tender, but not as gut-wrenching as it was at one time. The term “soul sister” means more to me than most.

Ask the Lord to reveal your wounds so you can ask for healing in those areas

Have you already experienced some healing? Was it instant or slowly over time?

If you feel led to support my ministry in anyway, I would love to hear from you.

Drafts on Restoration of the Soul