A Living Room Transformed

Just over a year ago, I moved into the barn at Woodland Village. This move started with a lot of excitement and enthusiasm for the work God had laid on my heart. What that work would exactly look like was yet unknown, but the simple prospect of being a presence in this neighborhood was thrilling. (Still is!) It has been a year of change, adjustment and baby steps in mission. I can’t help but see a strong correlation between what God is doing in me and the transformation of my living room over this last year.

The picture above is my living room before I moved in. It’s light and bright. It is also bland, plain and boring. Unseen in the picture are the torn and dirty shades, the dirty hand prints on the walls, the filthy baseboards and the flaking paint on the windows. The radiator had not been cleaned in years and the windows by their design were nearly unwashable. But the potential! Oh, what potential in these walls!

The living room was the first room to be worked on in the apartment. Not because it was the easiest but because it was the most necessary by its very definition. LIVING room. Despite its importance, it took time. In fact, it was only in the last month that the anchoring piece, a couch, was added. Since I had donated most of my furniture before I moved, for this last year, I used my lawn chairs for seating. (I still have one up). With this seating arrangement, my visitors were few. This allowed me to focus on a handful of people, as well as the issues God needed to bring to light within myself. The lack of seating, however, never prevented anyone in real need from stopping by.

The first agenda item was to clean and paint. Grateful for the special permission to paint, I was still restricted to “nothing dark or bright.” With blue not being my favorite color for carpeting, I wanted to mute it a bit. Plus I wanted to showcase some beautiful water colors I purchased on a trip to Greece. After all, if you live through a Chicago winter, a painting of Greece will lift any spirit. Then, I wanted to bring color, and lots of it, to the windows. It took much looking but I finally found the perfect fabric to bring an exotic flavor to my barn. With elements of Oregon and Indonesia, I knew this fabric reflected who I am inside.

I can hear you saying, “This sounds like a decorating blog!” It is not. It’s important to realize that God is just as much concerned about my transformation (as symbolized in my living room) as he is in the transformation of my neighbors’ lives. The transformation must start with me.

I couldn’t handle the dirt. So I cleaned. I couldn’t handle the white walls, so I painted. I couldn’t handle the torn blinds, so I replaced them. With each element, a transformation was made. Personally I went through a huge transformation this last winter. Everything from the financial stress to the intense loneliness were for a purpose, for my ultimate transformation. God showed me things within myself that I didn’t like. Seeing those things, I can now allow God to clean them up, put on a fresh coat, replace what is broken and remake me from the inside out.

While I was wanting to get the living room finished as soon as possible, I knew I could not rush the process. I was determined not to fill the space just to fill it. It needed to be a place where I felt at home, so that I could make others feel at home. It may not be everyone’s taste, but the finished room brings me great satisfaction and peace. In my personal and spiritual life that is what I am aiming for as well. I am more willing to find the right thing than finding just ‘any’ thing. I learned the hard way: When in doubt, don’t. And waiting for what you really want is  always best.

Piece by piece the room came together. The paint color. The crisp trim. The clean blinds. The vibrant window treatments. The corner shelf with my favorite family pictures and special items. The deep green plants that have survived despite nearly dying and are now thriving. The lawn chair that serves as a settee and reminds me of the blessing found in the unorthodox. And finally the black couch that came unexpectedly and perfectly to anchor the room.

In myself, the pieces are coming together. These next few months will see greater internal transformation. I’m confident of this. The agenda now is to be healthy and habitable in every way. It’s exciting and scary, yet necessary if I’m to be able to help others in their own transformations. I hope that one day soon I will look at my heart’s living room and feel the complete satisfaction I do when I consider my barn’s living room.

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