Flipping People
My five-year-old son approached my wife the other day and asked her what the term “flipping houses” meant. Apparently he had heard this on a commercial and didn’t quite understand how someone could flip a house. My wife explained to him how people will look for old houses that are of little value, buy them, renovate them, and sell them for a profit. For the next few days I would catch him mumbling here and there every time he would come across something old or ugly…”Ugh, gross! Someone needs to flip this bathroom!” I heard him muttering through the bathroom stall at a local restaurant. Ah, kids…they keep us constantly amused!
The whole “house flipping” trend has taken television and the internet by storm over the past few years, there are even “house flipping” seminars that I hear advertised almost constantly on the radio that promise for a small fee to turn you into a house-flipping millionaire. Outwardly it is easy to see why this phenomenon has taken hold of our collective interest. It is always fun to see the before-and-after photos of these run-down properties as they get a total makeover, but I believe that the draw to these types of shows runs much deeper than most of us are willing to admit.
The process of house flipping goes something like this: a property is neglected, run down, or damaged. An investor comes along and looks past the brokenness, the decay, the years of neglect or abuse, and sees potential. The house is bought for a price (usually way below value), and then the investor goes to work on it. Floors are torn out, walls knocked down, tile broken up and hauled out…every vestige of the abuse and neglect removed so that new floors, new tile, new carpet and paint and appliances can be added. Once this is done the house is re-appraised, and being found at sometimes as much as three or four times the initial market value, is sold for a major profit.
I’m sure that some of you are already seeing where this is headed. Did you know that God calls you a house? He says in 1 Corinthians 6:19 that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and that we do not belong to ourselves, but to Christ? Jesus has always been invested in humanity, and He came as an investor and taught His disciples to be investors as well. He told Peter and Andrew to follow Him and He would make them fishers of men (Matthew 4:19). Jesus is in the business of flipping people. He sees the broken, the abused, the neglected, those whom the world would call “worthless”, and instead of turning away, He sees our potential. He calls us “priceless” and He buys us with His shed blood. He redeems us and we no longer belong to ourselves, but to Him.
Our final appraisal is that we have gone from what the world, the devil, and ourselves regard as “worthless” to what God regards as “priceless”.
After our salvation is when the renovation begins and He begins to create in us a new heart and a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:26). 2 Corinthians 5:17 says “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation…the old has passed away and the new has come into being”. God goes to work in us, healing us of past hurts, neglects, and abuses that have been inflicted upon us by others or by ourselves. The Holy Spirit comes and dwells in us, and takes up residence. Only, in this story the house is not flipped for the intent of being sold to someone else, but so that God can dwell in us. Once the work that He does in us is complete He calls us His sons, He appraises us and says to us “This is my Son, with whom I am well pleased”. Our final appraisal is that we have gone from what the world, the devil, and ourselves regard as “worthless” to what God regards as “priceless”.
As priceless, we cannot be bought or sold because we are of so great a value to Him that He sent His only begotten Son to die for us, so that we might have everlasting life (John 3:16). We all like to see something old restored and made new because deep down it triggers in us the desire for Christ to come in and heal our brokenness, make us new, and call us priceless. I don’t believe in coincidence, so it can only be God’s sense of humor that Jesus lived as a carpenter, likely building houses with his father, Joseph, before moving on to His eternal ministry of building new creations with His heavenly Father.
