A Gospel of Change

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"And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."

Ezekiel 36:26, ESV

One of the many reasons I bought my house a few years back was to be able to host people in my own home.

Actually, the main reason I bought the house was for Squirrel. He deserved better than an apartment, right? A six-figure mortgage...for the dog.

But the second reason for buying a perpetual project known has a townhouse, was that I loved the idea of being able to reciprocate offers for dinner parties and movie nights, and being able to provide visitors a place to sleep other than a blowup mattress in the middle of my dining room/living room/home office/whatever. My tiny apartment with only a loveseat and a few folding chairs wasn't a great venue for gatherings.

My house has been a real blessing. I think I had more people over in the first six months I owned my house than the seven or so years I was in an apartment.

The one catch: Squirrel.

He was like a little Tasmanian devil when guests would come. There's really no way to appreciate it unless you could see it with your own eyes. It's not so much that he would jump on guests, but rather that he'd get the most extreme zoomies you can imagine. He'd run circles around the downstairs, up and down the hallway, and usually end by spinning like a top on the living room rug.

A weeeee bit intimidating for guests, especially if they didn't love dogs.

For a while it was pretty discouraging. We worked with a dog trainer and tried all sorts of tips and tricks. Nothing seemed to help. For a while I simply gave up and put him upstairs when people came over. A short-term solution, but a frustrating one. I wanted people to be able to meet my sweet boy! My 'sweet' boy, mind you, not whatever demonic creature invaded his soul whenever strangers dared cross our threshold.

A dear friend I haven't seen in a while came to visit last week. After we were settled in the living room talking, she exclaimed in surprise, "Squirrel's so calm now!"

And it hit me: he was. He had certainly been excited when she entered, but he quickly settled down and proceeded to fall asleep by his feet. I couldn't see the change in him going through the season, but suddenly there it was.

I think that moment hit me all the more because of another lesson God has been teaching me of late: People CAN change.

More accurately, God can still change people. As odd as it may seem, that's one of my biggest areas of doubt. When someone hurts me and a relationship breaks down, I tend to write it off thinking, "they'll never change. It will never get better."

Which really is code for, "God can't change them."

There have been two particular relationships this past year that have quite frankly shocked me with the turnaround and healing. Sure, I prayed over it, but it was a pretty faithless prayer. Just keeping it real.

Here's the deal though: when I stop believing God can change people, I also give up on the Gospel itself. After all, isn't that the message? That God turns hearts of stone into hearts of flesh? That He can redeem anyone?

No person or relationship is past redemption. That doesn't mean there might not be a season to step away. Boundaries are still important. But as I'm maturing in the faith, I'm starting to see that I can have boundaries, AND still keep the faith that God in His good time can heal the broken.

If God can use Paul to preach and serve the very people he once tried to kill...

If God can reconcile Joseph with the brothers who sold him into slavery...

If God can lead David to true repentance after adultery and murder...

If God can bring peace between a sinner like me and a mighty God like him...

...isn't anything possible?

*But I would be remiss not to call out that last night Squirrel was his crazy self again with company. Because change and improvement isn't a straight line, with dogs or with people. Hello, patience.