OnFire Encouragement Letter

OnFire 139 Solid Furniture

Hi folks. Its been a pretty quiet week. I’m getting ready for a firemen’s worship service this Sunday in our church. The boys were home from school yesterday because of weather. Ian is working on a trebuchet, a fancy type of catapult, for a science project. Mark continues to practise Sport Stacking for Denver in April. Jan’s parents visited overnight on the weekend.

Ian received his report card this week. He is in grade 8 French immersion. We are very proud that he made the 90plus club again, with marks ranging from 81 to 95.

This week we continue on our series in 1 Peter 1 on adding character to our faith.

Blessings,

Troy

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One of the first pieces of furniture we bought after finishing school was a futon. Popular among college students, a futon is a thick mattress supported by a light wooden frame which can be used as either a couch or a fold-down bed. We needed something extra for company, and so when we saw a good deal in the newspaper we bought it and had it delivered to our apartment.

For a few years it was great. The cotton material looked great and we liked the look of the natural pine. It met our modest needs and friends told us it was comfortable to sleep on.

Soon, however, we spilled something on it, and so it was stained, but that was OK. We put a throw on it to cover over the stain and no one was the wiser. But when the frame started to creak, I took that as a bad sign. The creaking worsened as we noticed it no longer felt tight. In fact, we could feel it move side to side if we wiggled our bottoms on the seat. After a while, no amount of tightening seemed to help.

The mattress also seemed to change. It became lumpy as the material in the top settled toward the bottom (a condition not unlike aging, it seems), and no amount of shifting and fluffing helped it to stay put. Eventually I tied it in place with a rope, which also held the two ends of the frame from coming apart. That was a rather clever solution, I thought at the time.

We disposed of that futon this year. We realized long ago that the frame and mattress looked good at first, but they really had no integrity. The pine was soft and would not hold the screws. The joints were inferior and the hardware was not intended for daily use. One day I lugged the mattress to the side of the road and I enjoyed cutting the frame up with my chain saw - although it got revenge when I hit a screw with my brand new chain (grumble, grumble).

In our series from 2 Peter 1 on adding character to our faith, we arrive next at godliness. I’ve described our old futon in some detail because it is a lot like godliness. No amount of external tinkering and fixing could change its inner nature. It required a complete rebuild to make it a solid piece of furniture.

Sometimes we make the mistake of confusing godliness with behaviour. It is easy to think that as long as I change the outside I’m fine. Make it look good - like buying furniture at a discount warehouse.

But we do not become godly simply by observing outward rules. Godliness is a matter of the heart. Behaviour is important - no question. But Jesus had harsh words for the people of his day who did all the right things - made it look good from the outside - but whose hearts really were not transformed into the likeness of God.

I think that people can see through us when we get this confused. Its like that futon. The more we stressed it, the more its inner nature was revealed. The more people observe us from up close, in good and bad, the more they can see what we’re really made of.

Here is the hope. Jesus is the Master Carpenter. We start with the frame of our lives, with its weak wood and poor joints. But he can rebuild us and make us strong from the inside out so that our lives reflect the nature of Jesus living in us. And there is one other benefit. When life drops us on the corner, we do not crack up in a pile of splinters.

Hope this helps. Be OnFire.

Troy

ON FIRE is a weekly letter of encouragement by Troy Dennis. To be added to or removed from the ON FIRE list contact him at onfire@eastlink.ca . Archives are located at www.onfireletter.com This letter published Feb 12, 2008.