Extreme Makeover: Capitol Edition

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:12-13

In January 2006 there was a great feeling of excitement in Monrovia as well as the rest of Liberia. After a 14-year civil war, a free and fair election had taken place and President-elect Madame Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was soon to be inaugurated. All but the most hard-hearted were glad to see the unstable war days in the past. In fact, people all over the world were excited. Ms. Johnson Sirleaf not only looked and acted nothing like a warlord, a great factor in her favor, she was the first woman president ever elected in Africa. This made her inauguration a very big deal. 

A close friend was given the contract to clean up and renovate the capitol building property where the inauguration would be held—no small task considering the war had only recently ended and everything, absolutely everything, had been negatively affected. The rush to finish the job was truly on because there were dignitaries coming from all over the world, including U.S. First Lady Laura Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. 

The contract was finalized less than a month ahead of time, so Mark was recruited to help. Mark and hundreds of others concentrated on fixing up the outside of the capitol property. They painted the building, fixed fountains and statues, cut grass and put out huge pots of tropical plants. The dome was even repainted a beautiful golden yellow. The last touches to the property took place just hours before the program began. The hundreds of media people who gathered from around the world took footage of a beautiful property. Most probably never even knew the inside of the building was not renovated.

And, sadly, this same thing can so easily happen in my spiritual life. I am in a hurry to look good so quickly renovate the exterior. With some quick "grass cutting" and "dome painting," I am good to go. However, and this is the rub, no matter how much I would wish it otherwise, someone will eventually get a glimpse of the true condition of the interior.

But while I can clean up the exterior enough to impress, it is only God who can clean the interior. Philippians 2:11-12 says something interesting that at first seems contradictory but is, in reality, two sides of the same coin. While it says I must "work out" my own salvation with fear and trembling, it goes on to say it is God who works in me both "to will and to do for His good pleasure." This is neither a passive, "Let go and let God," nor frantic self-effort. While my cooperation with His work must be anything but passive, it is in God's strength alone that I can be obedient or even have the desire, the "will," to be obedient.

Only then can the beautiful work God is trying to do in me truly come together. Rather than simply a freshly painted golden dome and other surface fixes, like Liberia's capitol building six years later, I too can be restored both inside and out. 

See A Raging Thirst for Righteousness.

See What Shall Be Done for the Man Whom the King Delights to Honor.