Under Restoration: By Vahe Sargsyan

Have you ever seen a project car before it is restored?

It may have left the factory with fresh paint, a clean interior, and everything working as designed. Years later, after neglect, damage, and rust, it looks very different. Parts wear out. Systems fail. The car is still there, but it no longer works as it was meant to.

Human nature is much the same.

God created humanity good, but sin wounded what He made. Our desires became disordered. Our judgment became clouded. Pride, anger, selfishness, fear, laziness, and lust began to pull us away from the purpose for which we were created.

Christ came not only to forgive us, but to restore us. St. Paul writes, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

But restoration requires our participation. God gives grace, strength, truth, and healing, but we must respond. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you” (Philippians 2:12–13).

A neglected machine does not repair itself, and neither does a neglected spiritual life.

Some habits need to be removed. Some weaknesses need to be confronted. Some damage has been there so long that we have started calling it normal.

We call anger strength. Pride becomes confidence. Selfishness becomes independence. Laziness becomes exhaustion. Lust becomes “normal.”

But Christ does not call us to manage our corruption. He calls us to be transformed: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).

Imagine standing in a dark room with a single candle burning. The farther you move from the flame, the less you can see. Shapes become unclear. But as you move closer to the light, the room begins to make sense. You see your surroundings more clearly, and you see yourself more clearly too.

The spiritual life works the same way.

The closer we come to Christ through prayer, repentance, Scripture, the sacraments, and the life of the Church, the harder it becomes to lie to ourselves. Pride is exposed as pride. Anger is no longer confused with courage. Spiritual laziness can no longer hide behind excuses.

St. Irenaeus writes, “For the glory of God is a living man; and the life of man consists in beholding God.” (Against Heresies 4.20.7)

Sanctification is not simply becoming nicer. It is restoration. It is learning self-control, telling the truth when lying would be easier, mastering anger instead of being mastered by it, keeping our word, admitting when we are wrong, and resisting what weakens the soul.

And this requires consistency.

You do not restore a project car by working on it once every few months. You return to it. You identify what needs repair. You work on it. Progress may be slow, but you keep going because you know what it is supposed to become.

The Christian life requires the same seriousness.
We fall. We repent. We return to Christ. And we continue the work.

We are not finished products.
We are under restoration.

And the closer we come to the Light, the more clearly we see both what is broken—and what God is restoring us to become.