Under Construction

My university is currently cluttered with construction sites. A new dorm is gaining height across from my apartment complex, continually shedding dust on my sister's new car. Several roads are blocked off, and the music building I would usually practice piano in is closed for remodeling. If a prospective freshman came to visit right now, I imagine they would think, "This campus is kinda ugly."

I'll admit my attitude hasn't been the greatest either--I don't like having to take detours, and I miss the piano rooms of Hughes Hall. It's none too pretty either, and it feels like the construction phase will never ever end. But as I was rambling around campus this evening to clear my head, I started thinking about how our lives often look kinda like this campus. We don't have everything together, no part is completely polished, and some aspects of our lives are downright grimy. My life certainly reflects this--I feel like I'm constantly having to work on my people skills, while covering up annoying habits and cleaning up the sin-stains. Even so, sometimes my carefully placed covers fall down revealing the unfinished work. It's a never-ending process.

But I draw hope from the fact that there's an Architect at work here. He has the design mapped out, and He delights in bringing His plan to life. The scrappy pieces don't worry Him, because He has in his head and heart what they can become.

"As you come to him, the living Stone--rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him--you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."--1 Peter 2:4-5

"And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit."--Ephesians 2:22

These two verses are both talking about the church, the people who have chosen to follow Christ. They do not say "you have been built" but "you are being built." It is a work in progress, an unfinished progress. But He has great plans.

"O afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted, I will build you with stones of turquoise, your foundations with sapphires. I will make your battlements of rubies, your gates of sparkling jewels, and all your walls of precious stones. All your sons will be taught by the LORD, and great will be your children's peace. In righteousness you will be established: tyranny will be far from you: you will have nothing to fear."--Isaiah 54:11-14

Even the lives, the churches, the nations that seem wrecked and destroyed, He is able and willing to transform into something beautiful. The work-in-progress may still look dusty and ugly at times, yet the Restorer will not give up, because He has the final, beautiful picture in mind.

A Constant Source of Water

"This is what the LORD says: 'Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORd, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.' "--Jeremiah 17:5-8

A similar passage to this one says that a man who delights in God's law "is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season, and whose leaf does not wither" (Psalm 1:1-3). I took this to mean that those who followed God's law received nourishment and refreshment. Jeremiah suggests the same thing in this passage; those who trust in the LORD are fruitful. What I noticed today, however, is that the tree isn't just well-watered because there happens to be a lot of rain. It's healthy because whether there is rain or not it remains by the stream, rooted in a place of safety and refreshment.

Jesus commanded his disciples, "Remain in me," and noted that those who are not are like a branch "that is thrown away and withers" (John 15:4, 6). We wither and dry up when we step away from God and His Word. We may get some rain here and there, but this world has a lot of "parched places" filled with withered people who have walked away from their Creator. If we stay close to God, if we keep him near to our hearts, and if we daily immerse ourselves in His precious Word, then that Word promises that we will not need to worry when trouble or "drought" comes--we will find our strength and renewal in God and continue to be fruitful.