Unmaking

A new song that has quickly become one of my favorites comes from Nichole Nordeman (a sadly under-appreciated Christian artist, mainly I think because her lyrics aren't the "Christianity lite" that is so popular, but I digress...). It's the title song off of her new EP (the only problem with that EP is that there aren't enough songs, but I digress again...), "The Unmaking." I was listening to it yesterday and realized how appropriate the first verse is for Mount Pleasant...

This is where the walls gave wayThis is demolition dayAll the debris, and all this dustWhat is left of what once wasSorting through what goes and what should stay...

Nordeman uses the imagery of a demolition to describe what we need to do in our lives, often, to allow God room to work. We fill up so many spaces that God longs to fill. We put things in our lives that push God out. We need to be, the song says, "unmade" so that God can work again. The chorus goes like this:

This is the unmakingThe beauty in the breakingHad to lose myselfTo find out who You areBefore each beginningThere must be an endingSitting in the rubbleI can see the starsThis is the unmaking...

Today is demolition day for Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church. The equipment is scheduled to arrive this afternoon and the first "bite" into the building will take place soon after. (If you're not from Mount Pleasant and want to know the story behind this demolition, get ahold of me.) While it's been a long time coming, I can't help but wonder if God hasn't been using this time to do some "unmaking" in our own lives and in the life of our church. As the song says, "Before each beginning there must be an ending." So true! Before we can begin again, we have to say goodbye to the old things, some of which have gotten in the way of our walk with God. We get hung up on buildings when God calls us to love people. We get hung up on things when God calls us to focus on his kingdom. We get in ruts; God calls us to new life.

Folks at Celebrate Recovery know this better than others. The addictions—or the habits, hang-ups and hurts—have to be dealt with in order for them to be able to move ahead, to follow God with all their heart. Others of us have the same sorts of things that get in the way, they just may be more subtle or hidden. What needs to be "unmade" in you so that you can "see the stars"?

A later verse says it better than I can:

The longer and the tighter that we holdOnly makes it harder to let goBut love will not stay locked insideA steeple or a tower highOnly when we’re broken are we whole

Only when we're broken are we whole. What needs to be broken in your life so that you can be made whole today? Give it to God. Let the walls fall. And let Jesus begin a new work in you.

In case you are interested, here's the whole song...