I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32)
I finally fixed our shower doors.
I don’t know why I waited so long.
At first they just started closing a little roughly.
It finally got to where one of the doors wouldn’t move at all without making the loudest screech and feeling like it was going to fall off and shatter.
But hey, you really only need one of the doors to work, so I still didn’t do anything.
Finally one morning I woke up and thought, “I really need to fix those shower doors.”
I bought new wheels that the doors hang on for basically pennies and within just a few minutes both doors were working like they were brand new. It was so satisfying to feel how smooth they operated. Why had I waited so long?
I don’t know the answer to that, but I do think this is our calling in the world, to make things run more smoothly.
I love this imagery in the book of Luke, chapter 3 verse 5, “…the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough ways smooth.”
I think this is what God does through His Holy Spirit inside of us. He begins His good work in us, straightening the crooked things and smoothing the rough things.
A big word for this is sanctification. I just finished memorizing the book of First Thessalonians, and sanctification shows up repeatedly. It says, “for this is the will of God, your sanctification.” It says, “…may…God…sanctify you completely,” and then it says, “He will surely do it.”
God sanctifies His people from the inside out. He takes our crooked places and makes them straight, and our rough ways and makes them smooth.
And then we, in turn, have a sanctifying effect on everything around us. We go out into the world and we take crooked places and make them straight and we make rough ways smooth.
Have you ever heard someone say this, “He’s so heavenly minded he’s no earthly good”? I think that’s the opposite of the truth. The more heavenly minded someone is, the more earthly good they will be because of this sanctifying effect.
A Christian who is truly connected to God is going to be improving the world all around him. Everyone should be happier when a godly person comes in and begins taking crooked places and making them straight and rough ways and making them smooth…because people like straight and smooth!
My mom was a master seamstress. She could work wonders with needle and thread. Now we take it for granted today because of our store-bought, factory-made clothing, but have you ever tried to take two pieces of cloth and sew them together and make a nice, smooth seam? It’s much easier to make it bunchy than smooth and nice.
And it’s easier in life to make things bunchy. We make our relationships bunchy. Our budget gets bunchy. Things get bunchy at work, at home, in the community, but there is good news. God wants to take bunchy things and make them straight!
First, He does that inside of us as we submit to His leadership. And then, through us, He does this work in the world around us, using us to fulfill His plan to take crooked things and make them straight, and rough ways and make them smooth.
And yes, I believe that includes fixing those shower doors.
May God bless you today.
I’m Doug Apple.
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