Jack and the Beanstalk Gone Bad....

We've recently been trying to do some remodeling in one of our bathrooms. It only had a tub with a hand-held shower sprayer, so we were wanting to put a "real" shower in there for the kids and company. After much pain, Jason was able to remove the layers of concrete and old sheetrock, but since we've been gone so much, we haven't gotten it finished yet. 

When we got back from Haiti, he opened the bathroom door, and this is what we saw:

Yes, a vine growing from behind the window! I hesitated to add the picture, because, well, it's kind of embarrassing!! We got a good laugh out of it though! I kept thinking over the past few days that I needed to go outside and cut it down, assuming it had grown from below the window and somehow through some of the insulation above the window. 

When we got home from church this morning, I walked over and looked at the window. There was no vine on the outside. It was growing between the brick and the wall. I suppose there is really no way to remove it, unless, we went under the house and uprooted it! We will have to cut it to finish the bathroom but it will still be there, behind the wall, which may not be a good thing!

I thought about the wall of my heart. When we surrender to the demolition that the Lord needs to do on our heart, things are revealed that others may not have known were there. At a time in my life, it was a root of bitterness and jealousy that was well hidden between the walls of my heart and what you would see on the outside. It was green with envy, much like this vine. Only until the Lord broke through the layers did I see it for what it was.

I'm guessing that since we can't really totally remove it, this vine has the potential to cause further problems down the road. I hope not, but I know that in life, until those "vines" are totally gone from our hearts, we will always battle it. It may not be visible to others, but we know it's there. 

Jeremiah 17:9-10

“The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out. But I, God, search the heart and examine the mind. I get to the heart of the human. I get to the root of things. I treat them as they really are, not as they pretend to be.”

Bro. Dennis preached on pretending and wearing masks this morning. I'm asking God to get to the root of things in my life, to examine my heart and mind. I want to be real, nothing hidden, so that when the walls of my heart are stripped, it will be found pure. I know that ultimately that will never be this side of heaven, but I pray I am ever striving for holiness. And when I'm not, I hope I will ask for Him to remodel my heart again.