The Attic of Our Souls

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17, NIV).

One morning a couple of months back, I noticed several spots along one wall in my kitchen where the paint was cracking.

They appeared in a perfectly straight line down the wall. After taking several pictures and sending them to my contractor friend, he confirmed my suspicion. “Looks like you’ve got a leak somewhere,” he said. He assured me everything would be okay, and he would check things out when he returned home in a few days. After this brief conversation, I pushed my worry aside.

The following Monday, my contractor friend showed up as promised, and after investigating, we discovered that a piece of vinyl siding around my dormer had blown off. After some repairs, I felt confident that my problem was solved. Fast forward a few days later. I was sipping coffee on the couch early one morning when I began to hear drip, drip, drip. I immediately went to the kitchen to find water dripping from my ceiling!

After a few phone calls, a friend encouraged me to check other areas of my house as well. I climbed the stairs to the attic, opened the door, and yet again, I heard, drip, drip, drip. After scrambling to find some old towels and bowls to catch as much water as possible, I started making more phone calls to determine my next steps.

Fast forward two months, and I find myself watching a crew put a new roof on my home. Though it was a tumultuous process, I am so thankful for the Lord’s provision: trustworthy people working on my home, an entire week of no rain to give this girl a break from the stress, financial security, and friends who provide comfort and support.

My new, beautiful roof provided a significant sense of relief, as I knew my home would be protected from further damage and drips. But even so, I found myself thinking about the torrential rains forecasted for the following week. Even after the new roof was on, I found myself worrying about checking the attic for drips. “Lord, I don’t want to go up there,” I prayed. “What if I find more leaks, even after the new roof, then what do I do? I think it’s better if I just don’t look,” I told Him.

It was in that moment that the Lord reminded me that the situation with my attic is much like the spiritual healing of our souls. Like my attic, some days, I just don’t want to look at the mess. It feels easier to ignore the problems that I know are there, but once I take the first step of examination, that’s when the process of healing, or clean up, truly begins.

I remember the first day I went to counseling. I canceled the initial appointment for some reason that I justified in the moment, but in reality, it was because I was afraid of what I was going to uncover during my time there. I was introduced to this Christian counselor through a trusted friend, much like I was connected to the contractor who put the new roof on my house.

Though I knew it was a safe place, that didn’t alleviate the fear of the unknown. Without courage and strength from the Lord, I never would have walked into my counselor’s office that day. What I didn’t realize was that I would be starting a journey of spiritual healing that would change my life. Once I finally decided to “check for drips” in the attic of my soul, the Lord began to work in my life in ways I never could have imagined.

Had the leaks in my attic continued to go unchecked, they would have, over time, ended up causing major damage to my home. Similarly, if I had ignored the wounded parts of my soul, my spiritual wounds would have continued to cause major damage in every part of my life.

The first evening after an all-day rain, I was filled with relief to find a completely dry attic. The new roof had done its job. But it wasn’t because I chose to patch the leaks here and there—it was because the old was completely replaced with new. Scripture reminds us of this truth: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV).

When I said yes to Jesus and committed to tearing away the old and the arrival of the new, the healing process of my soul truly began. The journey hasn’t been easy and has had its share of ups and downs, but when the contractor for your soul is Jesus Christ, you can walk confidently into self-discovery as He leads you on the path of healing the attic of your soul.