sacred strokes

I love the show Fixer Upper. The skills of Joanna and Chip, as well as their lifestyle built on faith and family, never cease to inspire me. One thing I appreciate is Joanna’s sense of style, how she can see various pieces in random stores and somehow masterfully tie them all together within a room. She knows which ones will fit in a given room’s style and which ones will likely just clash in an unpleasing way. I have noticed something when it comes to interior design.  Although one prominent piece of décor or furniture can alter the look of the room, nothing is as impactful as the walls.

Think about when you enter a room. The first thing you notice might be the furniture, a light fixture, a carpet, or a particular piece of décor. But the color or design of the walls is what makes the biggest impact on the room, even if the walls are not what our eyes are drawn to at first. Whether that involves paint color, texture, wallpaper, the type of material used (like wooden planks or shiplap), or even giant windows, the walls really do frame the way we see everything else in the room. Their impact may be so subtle that we don’t even realize the way they are coloring the rest of its contents, but they certainly are.

Thinking about this made me reflect on some things. Basically, if my life were a room, what would the walls be like? In other words, what is it that colors the rest of my life’s contents? What are the functional, large, or prominent pieces of furniture? What are the decorative pieces? How do they all tie together, and do any clash with the overall scene? I found myself in a whirlwind of reflective questions, thoughts and ideas with this metaphor, and I’ll share some of them with you today so you can consider them in your own life, as well.

I hope that, as Christians, we can confidently state that the “walls” in our lives should be, and are, comprised of our faith in Jesus Christ. Not our values, not our opinions, just Jesus. Not our family, not our job, just Jesus. Just God – our Heavenly Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit – the One whose ways are true, whose color is pure, and who gave us our rooms in the first place. Just Him – His presence, His Word – that’s what our walls should consist of. And nothing more.

But what about the other important things in our lives? Our families and friends? Our jobs? Our values and opinions? Those are all pieces that can go in the room, and which some would even say belong there. They are big parts of our lives, for sure. But the way we see them is naturally going to be affected by the walls. Some pieces of our life are just going to clash and that’s worth reflecting on. Should we change the walls or change the contents? Well… the walls are rock solid if they are built on Jesus and there ain’t no changing Jesus, folks. So change your contents if your walls are right but something’s clashing.

Sometimes a particular piece of our life goes well in the room but isn’t sized right and therein lies the issue. For example, if my life is a living room, and my family is a couch that fits the look of the room in color and texture and design, it must also be sized appropriately, as well, or it isn’t going to look right. If it takes up the entire room, I have clearly made it too big a priority and there’s not room for other things… I may even lose sight of the walls! On the flip side, if it’s too small that might not be ideal, either.

Décor is comprised of the pieces of your life that may or may not be functional or necessary, but add to the overall room nonetheless. Hobbies are an easy example. Some of these will be beautifully enhanced by the walls and serve to bring even more life to the room. But some of these are going to clash. Some just don’t go with the look of the room- and not in a cool, eclectic way, but in a way that detracts from the room altogether. Those pieces just don’t belong in a room where the walls are colored by Christ.

I wonder, honestly, how I am doing in keeping my room organized the way it should be? Adding in the pieces that belong and keeping out the ones that clash with the walls? Even more fundamentally, how well am I keeping my walls clear of clutter that really doesn’t belong there? If I’m not, those things will begin to color everything else through a faulty lens I shouldn’t be using.

Some folks have walls which consist of opinions, political views, other people, even themselves.  They don’t realize or forget how much that will affect how they view everything else. Inherent bias is inescapable to some degree; but when we are at least aware of it, we can retrain ourselves to realize our bias in the moment of discretion and respond differently, respond better. We may overlook how those pieces of clutter we threw into the walls will impact every facet of our lives and shape us in ways we never really intended. If anything, they can serve as furniture or decor, which we can alter accordingly when they clash with the walls. But those things themselves should never become our walls.

When that does happen, it’s called idolization.  It is a serious word, and we all have times when we struggle with it. Each one of us. When Jesus takes a back burner to something else – our image, our kids, our spouse, ourselves, our job, our political stance, our hobbies, our finances, our friends, our comfort, our ANYTHING, we have an idol we need to wrestle with. And that takes work. Prayer is crucial and sometimes we need the help of others to overcome those issues. Whether something just isn’t the right size in your room, something doesn’t belong at all, or something is serving as a wall when it should be part of the contents, it’s worth considering how we can clean those rooms to be better suited for such beautiful walls.

I think this idea can also help us better relate to people who don’t yet call themselves “Christians.” Those folks have walls built with something other than Jesus. So, naturally, we can’t expect them to have the same views because their walls are a different color or texture or whatever you’d like to imagine. We need to understand that they are viewing things in their rooms through a different lens and we need to try to understand where they’re coming from. Some folks would call this compassion, or even mercy. Different walls naturally cause us to see the same things differently.

We’ll never deserve those perfect walls that are always surrounding us and protecting us, and some of us choose to build walls with other, lesser things. But the right materials are precious and available to all of us. Keep your walls comprised of Jesus, and only Jesus, and adjust your room accordingly.

1 John 5:21, HLC