Real Time Isn't HGTV Time...

HGTV

Theology in the Trenches

by Kathleen Kjolhaug

We get that HGTV (Home and Garden TV) channel. We know how it works and how it doesn’t. Those one hour make-overs? Well, after two hours roaming the isles in Home Depot one evening looking for the likes of what we needed, hubby and I realized that their timeline doesn’t work in real time, our time, very well.

However, while glancing at an HGTV Magazine one evening, the caption on the cover caught my eye, “Thirty Minute Make-Over.” Perhaps there really is something I could do quickly to perk things up around here, I thought.

Only trouble was as I glanced over the choices given, I just as quickly determined that the ideas listed were not ones I’d choose. A lampshade wrapped in yarn didn’t look all that appealing, and neither did adding pom-poms to my pillows. The pillows we have are pathetic enough without adding a tassel upon each corner.

However, there was one idea that did look a little intriguing. Apparently, if one removes the hands from a white clock, which I assume would also be white; the suggestion was to spray paint them with a contrasting color. I can only figure that when doing so, time would stop. Perhaps it would take thirty minutes…perhaps not.

It’s easy to be a skeptic when things are advertised as being possible within mere minutes. Truth is, makeovers and do-overs are time consuming and they cost. You get what you pay for, and often times the quick fixes are just not long lasting. They satisfy for the moment, but when a foundation is built on careful planning with long term results in mind, it’s much more of a sure foundation from which to launch.

We need look no further than the all time foundation builder. Giving His life wasn’t a quick fix. He paid the ultimate price because of His ultimate love for us. What’s more, He paid for everyone…free of charge. Hard to wrap a piece of yarn around that much less our minds. To top it off, “It was while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). That piece of news is simply too good to be true…yet it is true.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, all things are new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). That is the only make-over I know of that takes mere seconds, and it is the only make-over that lasts forever. Not only can all afford it, but wisdom says you can’t afford not to.  Amen.