DEMO DAY!

For those of us who are dreamers and schemers and in some cases even doers in the world of home renovations and garden makeovers and all that is HGTV and DIYTV you will recognize my new favorite shirt. Fresh off the presses at Magnolia Farms in Waco, Texas. Chip Gaines loves a great Demo Day and I couldn’t help but order one of these shirts for myself. Why you ask? First of all, it is just a cool shirt and very comfy I might add. Secondly, who doesn’t like and enjoy Demo Day! You get to break it, kick it, pound it, throw it, toss it, just kill the living snot out of anything that is in your way on Demo Day! What does not sound fun about that? Show me an American Male (and even some females) who would not enjoy that kind of recreational activity, even one as unusual as myself. I can get dirty! I can swing a hammer (as long as it doesn’t have to be right on the head of the nail). I am not opposed to wearing those cool looking safety goggles especially with my shorter hair style they can’t do as much damage to my Demo Day doo.

As I was going about my morning running errands and vainly admiring my cool new shirt I started pondering the fascination that we have with Demo Day and all things demolition. My mind began to churn on the concept of destroying something for a purpose whether it be to rebuild, get it out of the way or to just start over. It occurred to me that I have spent the majority of my life either protecting what I have built or I have demolished what I have built. Here recently it is as though I have been demolishing a lot of things in my path. Whether it be relationships, walls, furniture, finances, etc. Whatever does not seem to fit in my world right now I have been on one gigantic Demo Day extravanganza!

Further thought took me to the idea of some things I have learned from God Himself. How many times in the scriptures do we read thoughts such as the following? In Isaiah 57:14, And it will be said: “Build up, build up, prepare the road! Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.” God Almighty is not opposed to setting things aside for our benefit. He is also not opposed to calling us to demolish things out of our way in order to accomplish the will for our respective lives. He would rather we tear it all down and start over then continue to do it in a way that does not reveal His true will for our lives. Even in Romans 12:2, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” He doesn’t want to continue to build things in our life that our like those of everyone else around us. I think that is one reason we are so fascinated by what they can do on those great Demo and Rebuild shows, they create new landscapes and textures and spaces that are new and not just like everyone else. Isn’t that how He himself created each of us. To be the unique version of who He has called us to be. Sometimes we just have to be willing to have a good old Demo Day and start anew

One of my all time favorite verses in the scriptures is from 1 Peter 2:9 where it refers to us as a “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special (also read as unique) people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” I am chosen and royal and holy and special and unique according to the way He created me, just the way I am. My favorite word is unique/special and I even heard some versions say peculiar. I love that peculiar! If you know me you gotta know that word fits me perfectly! I am drawn to peculiar people and peculiar people are drawn to me and sometimes I think Lord, why me? Why me?

I have a bit of a bold and overwhelming personality at times, and I think that throws people off at times, especially at a time in our culture when it is all about being polically correct. Given my career path and choices as a foster adoptive parent I have played the PC games, but not any more! Those days are over. In Jeremiah 1:10 he says he appoints me over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant. We are not designed to accept the status quo, part of walking in the spirit of the Living God is to have a Demo Day Spirit! To put your Demo Day shirt on, flex your arm muscles, grab your designer safety goggles and tear down those things that are in the way of God’s plans for His people. As a result I am just peculiar enough to say time for Demo Day Dude and encourage those in my life to try again!

When we have completed our demo and started working on the rebuilding and renewing what was into what should be, He promises in Jeremiah 31:4 that “I will build you up again, and you, Virgin Israel, will be rebuilt. Again you will take up your timbrels and go out to dance with the joyful.” Not only will He do what He promises but he says to celebrate it. Have a party celebrate the efforts of your work for it is not done in vain if done if according to His will and indeed shall be blessed.

It is interesting to me that I have taken this blog post in a different direction than I typically do in my writings, but for everything there is a time…..as you recently read from me! I don’t normally preach and quote scripture as it has never been my thing to do. I have hidden the word in my heart that it will carry me in days of darkness and it surely has! Yet it all just came rolling together as I was thinking about Demo Day and my cool new shirt and why I felt such an urge to get this shirt. Lord knows I don’t need another shirt, but this one has a meaning I didn’t completely acknowledge until I started meditating on the why! I like how things unfurl in such unusual ways.

This post has encouraged my own soul today as I rally in the midst of a rainy and damp, which does not do this body good! It also reminds me that as I continue down my own path of renewal towards final divorce, potential housing changes, kids starting summer break, etc  that the Demo Day process I am in right now is where I am supposed to be, as the day is quickly coming that I can truly start to rebuild and plant a new a life for my kids and I. In Thessalonians it reminds us to “encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” So even on this my Demo Day (must be true I got the shirt) I hope I have shed some encouragement on you as well!

This is what I know today…

1)      I love to demolish things!

2)      I am mildly dangerous with tools! Ok mildly might be an understatement!

3)      His ways are not always my ways!

4)    I am PECULIAR!  

4)      I am blessed!