Walking to and from my workplace in the heart of Melbourne, many years ago, I daily passed St Paul’s Cathedral. Due to pollution from automobile traffic and the nearby rail yards, the cathedral’s weathered stone blocks were found to be “diseased” – they were crumbling. The very structure of the sacred building was under threat.
A Restoration Fund was soon established, and stonemasons went to work on the crumbling cathedral. I was surprised to note the small amount of scaffolding erected for the workmen. It became apparent to me that, rather than demolishing whole walls of the cathedral, the restoration would take place a few stone blocks at a time.
Over the following years, the scaffolding slowly moved around the building, until one day it was dismantled – the work complete. Throughout the restoration period, the overall structure of the building remained intact, its skyline unchanged. As one diseased stone block was removed, a new one took its place, until the cathedral was fully renewed. The Lord deals with us like that. He doesn’t demolish us. Instead, He deconstructs us, little by little. As one bad thought is removed, it is replaced with a good thought. Little by little, the work goes on. It’s slow and unspectacular, and may continue for many years, the gradual change unnoticed by those who pass by us. But one day – suddenly, the work is finished. The last of the “disease” has been removed.
The Lord told the Israelites that He would not drive out the Canaanites all at once. That would allow the land to become overgrown with thorns, allowing wild animals to multiply. Instead, He would allow them to possess it “little by little”. (Deuteronomy 11)
Many Christians think that because their spirit is renewed the moment they are born again, everything else is also renewed. But Ephesians 4:23 tells us that we are to be renewed “in the spirit” (attitude) of the mind. Little by little, old thoughts are removed and are replaced by new thoughts, until finally we have “the mind of Christ.”
We don’t often see quick change in others, or in ourselves, because change is an ongoing and mostly unspectacular daily process. Restoration goes on in crumbling marriage relationships, dysfunctional families, individual attitudes, and other “diseased” areas of our lives. It all takes time, but when the Lord has completed the work we will know that we are fully and finally restored.
Until then, we’re all under construction.