Hidden Damage

By Dan Betzer
Guest Writer

CBN.com -- Last August Hurricane Charley hit our town hard. Our church building alone had more than a million dollars of damage. Many good folks lost everything they had. My wife and I were so grateful that our house came through the storm without a hitch.

We were in for a shock the other day. We were preparing to remodel our master bedroom. Everything had to be removed -- the furniture, carpets, and drapes.

That’s when we learned the rest of the story. When the valances were taken down, we found that one end of the bedroom, an outside corner, had sustained some pretty good damage from water. Apparently, the 100-mile-per-hour winds had raised the shingles enough to let water seep inside the walls and the damage was undetected all these months.

No, the damage is not heavy, but it will have to be repaired. My goodness, that wood rot was lurking in our room all these months, hidden by the drapes.

The spiritual application here is evident. How much stuff gets hidden, we think, in our lives that God knows is there all the time -- the hidden motivations, the unspoken (though often-thought) words, the bitterness and anger, the resentments from so many past factors of our lives?

We have them all covered so carefully. Then something happens and the curtains get opened and the light of conscience, the light of Scripture, or some other illumination hits the wood rot. The question then becomes, what do we do about it?

Do we get the repair done? At whatever cost or inconvenience? Or do we threaten our entire lives with ever-developing mold? Now, what’s the name of that shingle guy?