Deconstruction…it’s a good thing…right?

Earlier this year I had an epiphany…get rid of your pool. I hadn’t used it the last two years due to COVID and needing a new pool liner, so tearing it down seemed like the best option.

I wanted to pass it on to someone to use. I had used it for years with great enjoyment and wanted someone else to find pleasure in it. Well, taking it apart on Saturday we discovered it may not be good after taking it apart and putting it back up in a new backyard.

I felt horrible. Getting someone’s hopes up just to have it dashed.

The pool would probably have worked a few more years in my backyard, but after pulling up the siding, I saw years of decay and rotting beneath the surface.

I wondered, are our lives like this pool?

On the outside everything looks fine. Maybe a little duct tape is needed to patch that hole. A new pool liner (or wardrobe) to cover up shame and regret. A fresh coat of paint. Fresh water. New and improved chemicals. And then it will look perfectly fine.

Even though beneath, the rotting is still going.

Duct tape can fix temporarily, but it’s not a permanent solution. Eventually the duct tape will give way and something else will be needed to fix the issue.

You may be thinking, I don’t have any issues. Or you may be wishing you only had issues a piece of tape could temporarily fix.

But if we look deep within, we all will find that piece that needs fixing. That part of ourself that desperately needs a repair. That gaping hole that could use a patch that will never wear away.

But sadly, we try to fix it ourselves. We wear our fake smiles of living the American dream with our two story homes and three vehicles, while living paycheck to paycheck. We tell ourselves everyone else has this issue so we carry the weight like a badge of honor of being an American.

Or maybe we fill our loneliness with temporary, instant hole-fillers such as shopping, alcohol, drugs, sex, or any other addiction. We may even try to fill it with something good like volunteering, charitable giving, or even religion which sounds positive, but can still lead one to feeling empty later.

Deconstruction can be a sad process if the mere purpose is to tear something down. But hopefully, there is a purpose for it. Using the space for something better afterwards. Finding that purpose is crucial. But if you don’t find that purpose, you’ll be left once again with that hole.

There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.

Blaise Pascal

The only true hole-filler is Christ. If we come face to face with that realization the next phase of construction may still be hard, but it will be good. Very good. Because God will never leave us like that bad relationship. His well of water will never run dry or leave us in a regretful hangover. His grace never comes with hidden stipulations of high interest rates.

All He asks of us is…all of us. Complete surrender. Complete allegiance. Complete devotion.

Some may see this as a tyrant, dictator. But even though God asks of all of us, He then gives all of Himself to us. And in the financial world, we walk away with more than we ever said we gave up.

If I find myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity

This pool deconstruction may cause some regrets in the future (hopefully not), but I know, this pool is not where my ultimate fulfillment comes from.

Sometimes I still try to fill my holes with things I shouldn’t…but luckily God is always there waiting to fill that void that only He can.

He’s never let me down yet, and I’m pretty sure, that’s not in His wheelhouse of characteristics.

Peace