Handing Over The Keys

It's been a while since I posted anything here. My apologies to my loyal fans - you both know who you are - but I've been rather busy lately. The main cause of this busy-ness has been the sale of our house and then moving out. It's been over 8 years since the last time I went through this process, and I'd forgotten how much there is to do.

First there's getting the house spruced up and made presentable to go onto the market. A lived-in house is dirtier than you think! There were vast amounts of yard work to be done, too, and it all takes time. Then when the house is ready, the estate agent starts advertising and bringing people to look through the place. This is when you have to keep everything clean and tidy, junk put away, lawns mowed etc.

Eventually someone made us an offer and we accepted. This is when the real work begins. In the space of six weeks you have to either pack up or get rid of everything you own - which after raising a family and living in the same place for 8 years can be a lot. So there were cardboard boxes everywhere, a garage sale, a few give-aways to friends and several large trips to the "Port Stephens Waste Disposal Facility" - in other words "the dump".

Finally came the day - yesterday - when everything had been moved out, and what was once our home had become an empty house...sob...when it was time to "settle". That means that legally there is a permanent change of ownership. The conveyancers and solicitors shuffle a bunch of papers and money around, and we take the final step of handing over the keys to the estate agent who then passes them to the new owner.

That's a significant moment. It symbolizes a major shift in the state of things. Today, someone else owns that property and they can do whatever they like with it. They can repair, redecorate or renovate. They can knock out a wall if they want. They could even burn it to the ground if they were silly enough and I wouldn't be able to do a thing to stop it, because it's no longer mine. It has changed hands.

It strikes me that this process is very much the same as is for you and me when we come to Jesus. Becoming a Christian is essentially the act of handing over the keys of our lives to a new owner. Paul explained this to the Christians in Galatia this way:

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me..." Galatians 2:20

And again:

"You are not your own; you were bought at a price." 1 Corinthians 19-20

Too many Christians, myself included, easily forget this important principle that when we come to Jesus he owns us. A lot of the time we tend to treat Jesus as a mere accessory to our lives, a bit like a piece of furniture that we enjoy for a while. The problem with that approach is that it allows us to think that when Jesus becomes an inconvenience, or goes out of fashion, we can simply get rid of him in a garage sale or at the "waste facility". In other words we want to own him, not the other way around. And that's just not how it is.

The only way to live a healthy, successful Christian life is to let Jesus own it. That means letting him make the adjustments and changes that he wants, even when they are not what we would like. The good news is that if Jesus gets his way in your life, the result will be better than if you do.