Changing vs. Rearranging

Home staging—the practice of making a house presentable and appealing to potential buyers—has become a common trend recently. Real estate agents often bring in staging furniture and accessories to homes that they are selling. The homeowners are asked to move most of their own furniture into storage while the home is being presented for sale. Children’s toys, personal articles, all are removed. Neutral accessories, paintings etc. are brought in by the stagers. Once the house is sold, all the staging furniture and accessories are taken to the next home for sale.

Similarly, many of us ‘stage’ our lives—making them presentable and appealing to others. We put away the parts that we deem unfit. We highlight our acceptable traits and hide our inadequacies. Yet, when no one is around, we go back to our old habits.

“Only people of the Spirit actually change things, the rest of us just rearrange them.” (Napoleon)

Real change is very difficult. It requires the demolition of our current beliefs and identity. Most of us would rather do minor cosmetic rearranging rather than face total disruption of everything we hold dear.

I am always trying to eradicate bad habits and cultivate good ones in their stead. I rarely succeed. However, I keep striving towards self-improvement. I sometimes even feel compelled to offer unsolicited self-improvement advice to others!

As humans we can only make superficial, temporary alterations. We can stage our lives in ways that are presentable to society. We might be able to rearrange our ideas and habits to an acceptable level. However, tranformative change happens when God’s Spirit works in us and through us. It starts from the core of our being, not from external influences.

“The Holy Spirit—will change you from the inside out.”(Mark 1:8 MSG)

“A change of heart (is) produced by God's Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people.” (Rom. 2:20 NLT)

So, let’s not waste any more effort in rearranging our lives and imagining we are transforming ourselves. Instead, let us ask the Spirit of God to change us from the inside out.