What does that look like to you? As you look through these pictures what thoughts come to mind?
When you hear the word "building" what do you think of? Something like this...
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| an old church |
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| a house |
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| a skyscraper |
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| Notre Dame or another great Cathedral |
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| a strip mall |
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| a barn |
Or maybe the word "building" brings these images to mind...
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| an Amish barn raising |
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| building blocks as/with a kid |
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| high school & college competitions |
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| bridges under construction |
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| Movies like iRobot |
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| Mission work |
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| Skyscrapers & high rises |
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| Video Games |
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| Or today's craze....MINECRAFT! |
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| playing with legos... |
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...or Kinex (oh man do I have fond memories from both of
these toys while my son was growing up!) |
OR perhaps you think of people when you hear the word "building"...
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| A handshake when you meet someone new |
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| "Goooooooo team!" |
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| working together toward a common goal |
Now time to switch gears a little bit:What comes to mind when you begin to think about "building" in terms of your faith? An authentic Christian Faith...do these things come to mind?
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| Going to church |
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Attending a small group or Bible
Study to "do life" |
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| Sharing a meal with friends |
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| reading the Bible (God's Word) |
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| Praying together |
What about the hard places, the desert spaces or the challenging races as building faith? Do we forget that those are some of the BEST places to build faith? Building anything that is worth having...takes a lot of hard work.
When we were building our home, we had plans drawn up, then tweaked a few times along the way. We had schedules planned and deadlines set...only to see some of them come & go without that piece of the project complete.
Did we stop building? Of course not...that would be silly wouldn't it? Just because our deadline wasn't met, we don't throw in the towel & say "oh well, I guess now we won't finish building our house."
No....we reassess the situation, make the necessary phone calls to reschedule other work and we see what can be done in the meantime...in other words-we face the challenge with action only AFTER we've stopped to look at the bigger picture & realizing that each step MUST be done properly.
Even if that means that on moving weekend with your friends all scheduled & you have to be out of your previous home, you cannot actually sleep in your new house because one last crucial inspection can not happen until the next Monday. Yet you move anyway, choose to sleep at a friend's home for the weekend & wait...
If you've never built your own house acting as your own contractor, you may not understand the number of times this happens in the process...let me tell you, sometimes it is a daily reassessing of the situation.
I believe building our faith happens in a similar fashion. God, the master builder, has given us His Word to be the foundation of our faith & in order to build well...we MUST start there! Taking the time to read & study it, memorizing it to hide it in our hearts, understanding what God is saying to us.
Sometimes in the midst of that, we need to stop & reassess our life choices, because the Holy Spirit is halting construction due to something that needs to be addressed in our life, a change we need to make, a sin we need to confess, a situation we need to end.
The challenging races, the desert spaces & the hard places will come with any building project worth building IF you want to build it right.
What challenging race or hard place or desert space do you find yourself in today? How can reassessing & focusing on the bigger picture help you build faith right where you are?It may not feel like it now, but IF you chose to focus on God's plan in the midst of the challenge, pain or desert....you WILL be building faith!
I'd love to hear some of your thoughts on building faith today...
