2nd Opinion: How about an extreme makeover?

Our town was abuzz late this summer with the arrival of the Extreme Makeover team to totally rebuild the house of a family here in Pocatello. Many people volunteered to help in the project, and many others visited the site to watch the transformation. This whole theme is interesting to me. Out of thousands of potential candidates, one family is selected to have their house totally remade so that in the end it is brand new. It is quite an undertaking—and quite a benevolent concept.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to receive an extreme makeover of your life? What things about your life would you want changed, if it were possible for someone to come in and totally transform your life? Would it be your library—your brain—filled with thousands of memories? Would you dump them all, or dump the unpleasant ones, or not want to lose any of your memories, be they good or bad?

Would you change some of your attitudes? Would like to have some attitudes taken out of your life? Would you want to replace some old attitudes with some better ones? Would you like to replace some of the heartaches of your life with joy-filled experiences? Would life be as interesting if all your experiences were only joyful?

All of us have said or done things we wish could be undone. Sometimes, we receive natural opportunities to correct situations we messed up or to repair a relationship we broke. But for most of us, most of the time, we are like the majority of Americans who never will receive the option to have our house totally remade, let alone the chance to change things we have done wrong in life.

This is why God’s gift to us—the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ—is so wonderful and valuable. The message of Christianity is that the person who has fallen short of God’s ideal for life can be forgiven and extremely transformed into a person who can live a whole new life. This is possible when we allow the wrongs we have done to be nailed to the cross with Jesus, experience the cleansing of our lives from all the guilt of our selfish choices, and experience God himself moving into our lives to give us the desires we should have and the indwelling power of God to fulfill our proper desires.

In 2 Corinthians 5:17, the Apostle Paul states: “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

When people turn to Christ and ask him to forgive them and come to live within them, Jesus makes them new people. In that pivotal event, the person and power of God enters into that person and begins the process of an extreme makeover in that person’s life. As a result, he or she becomes a new person.

We really can have totally new attitudes, perspectives, values and the power to live a life in tune with God’s original design for us.

And the neat thing about God’s extreme makeover of us is that it is available to all who ask, accomplished by the resources of God (instead of attempting it on our own), and an ongoing process so that we continually are being renewed and transformed.

Most likely you would gladly accept an extreme makeover of your house. Are you just as willing to have an extreme makeover of your life?

Ed Jordan is a columnist and pastor of Gate City Baptist Church in Pocatello, Idaho.