My hat goes off to those who lay tile for a living. You are worth every penny you charge. I learned this yesterday as Matthew and I ventured into laying some tile ourselves. It was definitely a process of trial and error. I am really grateful to the man at Lowes who took the time to walk us through the project step by step, telling us what supplies we really needed to buy, and what we could do without. We watched a lot of You Tube how-to videos, too. We felt certain we could do it. Well, mostly. Matthew felt certain we could do it. I felt certain if we goofed it up, we could employ the man at Lowes to fix it.

We soon learned that all the instructional videos and helpful hints in the world couldn’t take the place of hands on experience. We found a lot of what we had been told to be true, and we discovered quite a few truths of our own. I for one, discovered several muscles in my legs and back that I was unaware have been grossly underused. I also discovered that the fumes from the tile cement give me a rip-roaring headache.

In the end, we did a great job and saved ourselves about five hundred dollars in labor. While I won’t be starting my own tiling business, I might be willing to tile something else sometime…later. When I can straighten up again without pain.

My tiling experience isn’t unlike living the Christian life. We can read up on it. Talk to an expert or two; even watch endless You Tube videos about it. There is no shortage out there of information on how to do it. We can even sit in church each week, but until we fully embrace it, we can’t really know what it’s like.

Living the Christian life is something that must be experienced first hand to fully appreciate. Some of us fear that kind of commitment. To give ourselves over fully to Christ means we set aside what we want for ourselves in favor of what He wants for us. Living a Christ centered life means we are no longer in the driver’s seat.

If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it. Luke 17:33

It’s sometimes messy, and unpredictable. Just when you think you’ve gotten it all nailed down, you find you have still so much to learn.

There’s no way to tile your floor yourself without jumping in with both feet and a trowel, and seeing it through. There’s no way to live the Christian life without doing the same- minus the trowel. Jesus doesn’t want part of you. He’s not interested in us testing the waters. He wants us fully committed to Him. It’s the only way to experience what a life with Christ really means.

I love the way my bathroom floor looks now. The change is so drastic and beautiful. The ugly cement floor is gone, and in its place is a ceramic work of art. It has been transformed. That’s kind of what Christ did for me. He took my ugly, dry, and lifeless life, and made it new. I am a work of art, transformed by His labor of love.