Rebuilding the walls.
That’s what we have done a lot of lately. Last month we rebuilt the walls around the mission house in Belize with cinder blocks and cement. This month we are building with tires and rocks.
Before I made such walls, I was ignorant on what it all entailed. I thought it would be a fairly simple project. Stack the cinder clocks over the cement till a wall is made. Bam done.
This month when I looked at the tires and rocks, I imagined it would be something like stack the tires and fill with rocks. Bam done.
Nope. Building walls isn’t that simple. It requires work, sweat, patience, being thorough…all things I lack in my life. So of course building the walls was a bit of a struggle for me. I wanted it to be quick and easy, and I wanted my results to be easily evident.
Five days later. I am STILL HERE stuffing rocks into the tires. The rocks have to be placed Into the rim of each tire, so tightly and perfectly packed it’s like a game of Tetris. When I think I’m finished with a tire I call Ricardo over to inspect it so I can move on, and the majority of the time it needs to be better. What I think should of been an pretty easy job of filling tires with rocks turns into a mathematical challenge of size and approach.
I’ve had a lot of time to think while I’m tire stuffing – with a life revelation of this: Rebuilding walls isn’t easy, but necessary.
Without the tire walls we are building, when the wet season comes, this mission house and property will be flooded by the river water, and destroyed. Without having strong walls, what’s inside won’t be safe. Walls are vital on keeping the house safe.
This year I have slowly been rebuilding the walls of my faith. I had a wall of tires, but it lacked the sturdiness of being filled with rocks and cement. It fell down easily. It swayed in the wind, and didn’t keep out the floods-lies, doubts and fears from the enemy.
There will always be broken down walls that need to be rebuilt. Lives broken by the effects of sin. Many are broken because they have been hurt by those from who they are supposed to receive love from. Hurt by parents, friends, or spouses who deserted them. Broken because of past failures. Broken because they failed to live up to the expectations of others.
We don’t need to let our walls stay broken though! We don’t need to just sit in the middle of our yard crying about our broken wall. Let’s get up and start re-building! We can rebuild our walls stronger then they were before. We have a second chance to get it right (and a third, and a fourth…).
The wise man built his house on the rock, and hopefully he built rock walls to protect his house as well. I’m not as wise, so I’m having to rebuild. This time my walls will be built back up, and Filled-one rock at a time.
