Scripture: Psalm 127:1-3
Journal: What does it mean to let God build your house? How will you do that? What might he need to demolish in order to
build according to his design?
Reflection:
So now the house is in place, shiny and
bright. I have applause and esteem. They congratulate me for my flexibility and
leadership and enthusiasm and what I’ve done and am doing. But this house of mine is somehow askew: it’s
my house, not the Lord’s house. “In vain
do the builders build.” And yet I know
in my heart that each step was taken because it was right and seemed to be the
Lord’s way. Yes, it was, but he had
something else in mind for it.
Then another image rose
spontaneously as I walked along. It was
the Lord as an artillery captain who came in front of my fine house dragging
his cannon and proceeded deliberately and systematically to shoot the whole
damn thing apart. Story by story, wall
by wall, brick by brick he gunned down the house that took me twenty-five years
to build until only rubble was left, pieces of masonry on the ground, and I'm
standing there with the debris of my life at my feet looking at the ruins.
The strange thing was this
big wide grin on the Lord’s face as he gunned it apart in high glee. It’s as though he said to me: now watch the
top story while I blow it apart.
There! Now watch the second
story: there it goes! Isn’t that
great? Now watch the back wall:
hooray! Now the side walls, now finally
the front and it’s all gone. Isn’t that
marvelous! And he turned to me with joy
and warmth and smiled on me with much encouragement. (A Traveler toward the
Dawn by John Eagan)
Prayer
Closing
Prayer: Build the house, O God, whatever that may
mean, that we might not labor in vain. Amen.
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