Facades

"Hey, how's it going?" "Great, how 'bout you?"
"How was school today?" "Fine."

Facades. Are you really okay? How was school, really?

I recently read a story about an elderly woman back in Massachusetts. Everyone loved to help her. When a neighbor noticed her lawn getting long, she paid a grandson to mow it each week. A local church, as an expression of charity, painted her house. During winter, her exterior pipes cracked and the utility company fixed them without comment or cost. And so she lived alone in her beautiful little home quietly and disturbing no one.

But here's the deal; she had died four years earlier of natural causes. The respectable, external appearance of her house had hidden the reality of what was true on the inside. The beautiful exterior had disguised the death inside.

Something similar can happen to us. We spend all of our energy fixing up and maintaining the exterior while we are dying inside spiritually. The Bible says that surrender is the better option. Giving up, or rather giving over, the control of our life to the One who can best guide our footsteps.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Corinthians%204:16&version=NIV