Our back porch slopes with the settling of time gone by. A weary reminder that everything shifts, including the very ground on which my home was built in the 1930s.

My wife tells me that some well-placed furniture might cover this fact. I’m not convinced.

Our house started out as a fixer-upper, but has ended up more like a hold-it-together. We finished a bathroom and a kitchen, but with three young kids and a job that never ends, where does one find the time (and money) to renovate? I barely find enough to keep the lawn below my knees.

We finally had the house painted this past month. One neighbor told us it hadn’t been done in 20 years. Another said it looks like a brand-new house. Without a doubt, it makes a huge difference.

It got me thinking about my life. How often do I think some new furniture or a coat of paint will change things? How often do I want to cover over the problem that lurks just below the surface?

Can I face the difficult reality that I need a complete renovation? I need a change from the inside out.

The Bible is clear there is a problem so fundamentally ingrained in who I am that I can’t make it better with surface improvements. A new coat of paint won’t change the fact that my house has no insulation.

Jesus ends his longest sermon with this challenge: “These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard life. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock.” (Matthew 7:24-25 MSG.)

I’ll admit; it is easier. That’s the problem. It’s easier to just make everything look good to the passer-by without actually taking the time to really fix what needs fixing. But a face-lift won’t last forever.

Jesus says in the book of John, “Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you.”

Jesus promises that the foundation of a home built on Him will never crumble. That He is as unshakable as a solid rock.

But it’s only going to happen when I can admit my sagging joints and hollow walls. My fears and my failures. When I can invite the Master Carpenter (God) to renovate me from the ground up. From the inside out.

So I’m making my list. I know it won’t happen all at once, but in time, project by project, I’m hoping to end up with what they call a “character home.”

Solid from top to bottom. Quality inside out.

Jonathan Headley (youthinthecity.com).