The facade

On my commute the other day, I passed a building near where I work and had a random thought.  Here goes:

Facade (noun)  
1. The face of a building, especially the principle face.
2. An artificial or deceptive front.

Facades are nothing but window dressing - something meant to give an impression of grandeur, when in reality, the rest of the object is not so great.  You ever see some of those buildings that have a storefront that has brick on the front with nice doors and windows, but if you drive around the side, you see that it is really a cheap, metal building with a nice front?  There is one of these that I pass by each day on my commute.  The solid brick frontage gives an air of strength and stability.  The detail of the brickwork and copper trim and clean lines exudes good taste in architecture.

Nice brickwork and copper awnings

It might fool some customers, but the owner of the building and those who attempt to look at the building closely see that the niceties of the storefront are a façade, a show, a deception.  There’s an old saying that you can put lipstick on a pig, but it don’t make it the prom queen.  When you look around the side of the building, why it's just a metal building... a barn!

Peeking around the side of the 'brick building.'  Well Lookee here!

Now, there's nothing wrong with a barn or a metal building.  There's nothing wrong with saving money on construction costs and bricking the front only.  In fact, it is a smart business move.  The point that the Good Lord was drawing my attention to (I think) was not about architecture, but of humanity - of pride - of selfishness and it was directed to me.  Oftentimes illustrations or analogies that we see in everyday life point to flaws in the human condition.  I think God was trying to tell me something and I think I should listen.

1 Samuel 16:7

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

While we may look at surface level, superficial things, God peels all that away and looks at what's around the back and what's inside.  Like the wizard hiding behind the curtain in "The Wizard of Oz," I'm guilty of often being concerned about what things look like from the outside, about my image or the way that others perceive me rather than what's 'behind the curtain.'  I get my bricks, mortar, and trowel and build a nice storefront facade.  Sometimes people don't peek around the side of my 'building' and see that it's only a barn.  But I know.  I know it's a barn and so I continue to put 'copper gutters' or 'Andersen windows' and other architectural accoutrements all over the front of my building.  (But I'm still a barn - a cheap metal barn at that!)  A quick stroll around the building reveals it.

Photo Credit

So what to do with all this talk of bricks and barns?  Well, I think the main thing is to be real - be yourself. Stop it with the game and trying to portray a false front.  We should be confident in the person God has made us to be.  God and people around us love us for who we are – not the clothes we wear, the car we drive, the phone we're talking on or the fake smile that is trying to hide what’s really inside.  We should come to grips with our good, our bad, and our ugly and shouldn't expend time, money, and energy trying to be, or portray ourselves to be, something that we aren't.

But I don't believe the point is to settle for who you are right now.  Like the Bible verse says above, man looks at the outer appearance, but God is interested on what's inside. What are you made of?  God loves us, warts and all, but He loves us too much to leave us where we are.  Once we've done a 'building inspection,' we can make a conscious decision to surrender pride, envy, deceit, selfishness, and truly repent. We should humble ourselves and ask for help.  The Master Builder can then come in and do some renovations - renovations that will transform our building from the inside out, making our cheap metal barn into a majestic Cathedral with spires reaching the heavens, not because of anything we've done, but what He's done!

Image Credit

It's time to get the building inspected and ask the Builder to do some renovations.