TOD 09.07.07

My wife has recently become strongly attached, note I did not say “addicted,” to watching television shows about flipping houses and remodeling, something she’s always wanted to try. One of her favorites is about these people who take $2000 and use it to spruce up houses and prepare them for being on the market. They call the process “staging,” and it can easily mean the difference between selling a house in 6 days or 6 months.

At first it seemed like deception to me. Putting better make-up on a woman doesn’t make her a better wife-candidate, even if it attracts more offers. But then I thought about it differently. It’s just a matter of showing the house in its best light and making people more willing, even eager, to buy it. And if they’re happy doing so, everyone wins.

And I couldn’t help but think of Christians in the public arena and how we so often lament that no one wants to accept our wise and true ideas. And why don’t they? Because we are generally inept at staging, which is a shame, especially since the house we’re representing is worth so much more than the asking price.