Sometimes, it's the Pipes

When I initially considered the renovations for our Hubbard Home, it seemed so matter-of-fact: floors and paint. As long as we put in new floors and paint everything white, our home will be beautiful, livable, and feel close to new.

Fast forward to last week when our bathroom walls were stripped to studs and 2x4’s, exposing rotted pipes laying in the dirt, crumbled and corroded after 40+ years of minimal usage… suddenly it’s no longer Floors & Paint. It has now evolved into copper pipes, rerouted plumbing, and a deep trench of dirt and uprooted cement outside our home.

From the beginning, I dreaded tapping into the walls, fearful of what we might find there. I was afraid that perhaps there was more work needed that I simply wanted to ignore. Can’t we just focus the funds on the part that makes the house look good?! How bad can it be for bathrooms to drain into the dirt?! I focus so much on the aesthetic that I ignore the functionality of what lies within.

But what good is the beauty of the outside if the inside is rotting?!

While I want to focus on the light fixtures, flooring, brass accents, and subway tile, I forget that if the pipes aren’t working, all of that is useless. Our home could flood and our flooring could crumble; our kitchen could overflow and our bathrooms could back-up. All the crown molding and accent colors and gold hardware are useless at that point.

Walking with God isn’t something I can show-off or prove on the outside. He changes and refines our heart in a gentle, non-glamorous way. He renovates the functionality of how we work, instead of the pieces of us that others see. I get lost in appearance; I want to show who I am to the world without digging to the deeper, scary layers that lie behind. What am I scared of?!

If there’s anything I hope to give to our son, it’s a sense of power in vulnerability; a willingness to peel back the layers and explore the heart. A softness and grace towards his shadow, and a strength in his own weakness. I realize this is a discipline I have to first know within myself in order for it to be passed to him.

I hope to remember our lessons in these weeks of work within Hubbard Home. Because sometimes it’s more about the pipes than anything else.