DIY Disaster

The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.

 -- Proverbs 12:15

   

Do you like to DIY (Do-It-Yourself)? 

If so, you're not alone. According to the Home Improvement Research Institute (yes, there really is such an organization!), home improvement product sales at retailers like Home Depot and Lowes grew to about $303 billion in 2014, and the organization forecasts 5.7% growth in 2015. From building a backyard deck to installing indoor lighting, consumers can save thousands of dollars doing their home improvement or repair projects themselves rather than paying a licensed professional. Magazines, websites and even entire cable TV channels are devoted to showing DIYers how to do it right.

Of course, this all comes at a hefty price for the many would-be handymen and handywomen who discover that they're in over their heads...and then have to call in the pros to fix the mess. The This Old House website features a DIY Disaster section that chronicles the woes of homeowners who thought they could do it themselves. One Colorado women wrote that because of her area's extremely-high property values, she bought a condemned home for $160,000 just to get into the market. She thought that she could afford to re-pour the house's foundation, but failed to calculate the additional cost of re-wiring, new duct-work and landscaping. And when the house was lifted during the foundation repair, the back 300 square feet of the structure collapsed! In the end, the ambitious DIYer paid $12,000 to transform her 2-bedroom house into an uninhabitable 1-bedroom shack!

In many ways, this DIY disaster story has much in common with passages we find throughout Scripture. A recurring theme is that God has a grand vision for His people and a plan for achieving it. But mankind--through its arrogance and ignorance--decides that it knows better than the Creator...and then sets out to take care of things itself.

The results are both tragic and disastrous. In one of the Bible's earliest passages, we read that the devil convinced Adam and Eve that God was holding back and preventing them from reaching their true potential. Gullibly falling for Satan's lies, the first man and woman ate the fruit that their Creator had commanded them to avoid. Unintended consequences such as illness, crime, poverty and death have plagued mankind ever since.  

Yes, there are some relatively simple household tasks that we can do ourselves to save time and money. But for the larger, more important projects that we can't afford to foul up--whether they involve our homes or especially our souls--it's always best to depend on a Pro.