As my family finds ourselves in Twin Falls, Idaho (it still feels so unexpected yet at the same exact time it’s like it’s all that makes sense for us now) we also find ourselves smack dab in the middle of a season of “building.” Building a family, a house, a new life, a community, and a church. Even though each form of building is different from one another, there are common links and threads that I’m starting to pick up on. That I’m translating from one form of building to another. This season feels long but all too soon it will have felt really short. So before I forget what I’m learning through all this building, I want to jot it down for myself and share it with you, too.
1. The energy
There is a specific kind of energy that comes along with the “beginning days” of anything. I think it’s some sort of mix of excitement, anticipation, and adrenaline. The honeymoon phase of anything is not always and only filled with bliss. But there is usually at least a sense of freshness. A happiness for what now is and a hope for what one day will be. These are the days, the ones right now, we’ll look back on and reminisce about. That we’ll say “remember when” about. There’s only one beginning. And right now, we are living in the middle of those beginnings. What a joy and privilege it is to be a part of something so unique. Something that a lot of other somethings will one day be built upon.
2. The exhaustion
There is also a certain kind of exhaustion that accompanies the beginning of anything new. The days that follow new birth inevitably include rookie mistakes. They include not only writing up the rule book but then by trial and error being the one to try to implement it. They involve running to Lowe’s 7 times because you don’t really know what you need until you just start. And start again. They involve rubbing shoulders with others- and sometimes bumping hard into them- because of living life so close together. They include a lot of the same get to know you questions, showing up early’s and leaving late’s, giving help and asking for help, and waiting around to see if all this work is really producing anything. These are the growing pain days. Because to grow up, you have to fail and to fall. And sometimes the fall is hard and the pain is heavy and the wait is long.
3. Our hands
As most things in life, anything we want to grow has to be tended to. Anything we want to stand with structure, has to first be built. It takes actually doing it. And that can be really daunting and frustrating. It can also be really fulfilling and rewarding. The reality is that good things really do take time. Time and determination and grit. Often a lot of hard, sometimes thank-less and show-less, work. But in both the physical structure of our house and the familial heart of our home, there are no guarantees. The storms of life are out of our control. And they can bring damage and destruction to even the sturdiest of foundations. So while we work to build, we also have to rest in knowing we ourselves can not force it or secure it. Not any of it.
4. His work
In this season of building, the most freeing and humbling thing that we have to constantly reorient ourselves around is that ultimately it is all the Lord’s. He is the one who has birthed all that is being built. And unless He builds it, we labor in vain. With our friendships and families and houses and churches. It’s a striving and a surrendering. Holding our hands open in trust and lifting them high in praise. Knowing it’s all His, in both the coming and the going. The change and the transition. And just like in our our house, we keep building from the ground up. Brick upon brick. Hoping we enhance what we’ve been given and make it something we love and something that lasts. Seeking even more deeply to make a sacred place of peace and of refuge. Of truth and of welcome. But it is ultimately The Lord who draws those who come in and leads us each as we go out. He sovereignly holds the house together as He tenderly holds those who dwell inside.
Oh how true this is of His Church. His beloved Bride. He is building up His church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And here we are, getting in close to work hard and then standing back far to wait and watch Him really do it all.
Lewisvillelife 