An Extreme Makeover

Extreme Makeover is a television show which tugs on the viewer’s heartstrings. Two people are chosen who will undergo an “extreme physical makeover.” Their piercing, moving stories of low self-esteem, based on bodily features, coupled with unkind words of others led them to want an extreme makeover. Features such as ugly teeth, unflattering nose, protruding chins, body shape, fat, wrinkles have led to such a low self-esteem that they cry out for help. They are in need of some type of savior. Some feel they can hardly go on living. After six weeks of surgical work and healing, it’s time to see the results of this “extreme makeover.” The day of the great unveiling brings joy and happiness to that person in need, and also to family and friends who can hardly believe how this person now physically looks.

Today we can also witness an extreme makeover: the refreshing wind of the Spirit is blowing and it is changing the men and women who wait. It is causing things to begin to happen. The Holy Spirit’s presence is always equated with power. Just as the violent wind shook the room, the disciples knew that something glorious was happening. They were immediately convinced that what they had been waiting for had begun. Christ had kept his promise to them! They would never doubt that their Lord had come to them in this unmistakable way. The mighty breath of God was moving among them.

Breath is life. We breathe eighteen times a minute, 1,080 times an hour, 25,000 times a day. At age 40 you will have had 365 million breaths, each a gift from God, the gift of life. A few moments without breath and you are unconscious, a few moments more and you are dead. No wonder the Psalmist declares, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” Psalm 150:6. On his death bed, John Wesley’s last words were “I’ll praise…I’ll praise…” he was struggling to say the words of the great hymn of Isaac Watts, “I’ll Praise my Maker while I’ve Breath.” What natural breath is to the human body for its existence, so is the mighty Breath of God—the Holy Spirit—to the spirit of a person. We simply cannot live long without him. We are more right than we knew when we pray as we sing, “Breath on me Breath of God, Fill me with life anew.”

Each year we witness as our eighth graders confirm their faith. Their journey is also one of an extreme makeover. How do they look? Physically they have matured. I have had the privilege of baptizing a number of them and I have watched them grow to this point. But it is in the area of the Spirit that they have undergone an “extreme makeover.” From their statements of faith, class discussions, the love shown on service projects and ministry around the church, they have undergone an “extreme makeover” spiritually.

It is also good for each one of us to reaffirm our faith in Jesus our Christ and acknowledge the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives as well. What is to be the result of our extreme makeover with the Holy Spirit?

Go with God,

Pastor Qualley