Extreme Makeover Home Edition Gets it Right!

It is not too often that a random comment on television leaps out of the set and clarifies life as a Christ Follower, but it happened to me tonight. I was watching Extreme Makeover Home Edition as the team redid the Boettcher Family home. (I think I have that spelling right). "Pastor Steve" (Dad) has run a ministry to biker gangs and bikers for many years. His family also turned their garage into a recreation center for the town kids. Many of these kids were featured on the show, discussing the warmth and love and affection they found at the Boettcher home, in addition to home cooked meals and a little guidance. The Boettcher family lived in a 12 X 70 foot trailer, with their 20 year old daughter and special needs grandson, but they ran an amazing ministry from their garage and home. Mrs. Boettcher cooks each Wednesday for 30 - 40 kids in a kitchen no bigger than an RV kitchen. Ty Pennington, in his own way, was amazed at all the Boettchers have done out of this primitive and falling down home. "You've done all this in this home and kitchen?" he asked. Pastor Steve whipped his head around and looked genuinely surprised by the question, as if it had not occurred to him that these conditions were hardly ideal for running a family, let alone a community ministry. "It's the home I have." he stated simply.

With that, he floored me. What an attitude! Of course I ran my ministry out of here, this is the home I have to give. And with this falling down, broken trailer, Pastor Steve and his family turned lives upside down for God. Wow. If we all could approach our possessions and our lives with that same open-handedness, what would we accomplish? Of course...this is what I have. 

All of this kind of reminded me of the boy with the fishes and the loaves of bread, feeding thousands with "what I have." Or the widow, who offered to God's prophet, "what I have." Or Abraham, who placed on the altar "what I have." 

What do I have?

Extreme Makeover? If people really listen to the story told tonight it could be an Extreme Makeover indeed.