Daily Devotion
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?
Used with permission by author, Dan Betzer. Previously published on ByLine OnLine, copyright © 2005 Media Ministries of the Assemblies of God.
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