Building (Disciples)

Today, being Friday, is one of those "hurry up" days where it seems there's never a shortage of things to do and to complete.  The usual assortment of things such as having lunch with our daughter at school (a Friday "tradition" of sorts), getting the bulletin ready for Sunday (proofing and adding, as Kristi Kreuscher ably does the layout and the copy), and of course the message and theme for Sunday need to be firmly nailed down, if not already done.

There has been for several months now, the added dimension of the church building going up just outside of the city limits of Gothenburg - out among the corn and bean fields of Nebraska.  This building has been in process since I arrived here nearly 3 years ago now, and is nearing completion. This building has come with a whole new set of challenges.  While certainly if money were no object, anything and everything we could anticipate would be added and included in the build itself.  Rather, while we have had excellent representation and input from our builders (Brown Church Development out of Kearney), there have still been many things we've needed to anticipate simply out of necessity to our situation and so on.  Take yesterday for example:  Brent Block and I over lunch installed several one inch "sleeves" or tubes above all the doors of the classrooms and leading into the utility room.  These sleeves are below the sheetrocked "lid" and above what will eventually be a grid type suspended ceiling.  Their purpose is simply to allow all the data wire to be pulled (a job we are doing ourselves as a cost saving measure) without the need to run any wire in the attic spaces above the various parts of the building.

When it comes to our calling as Christian disciples, we are built in much the same way.  It is one thing to know the Gospel, and to see God's truth in Jesus Christ.  (or even just to come to that point of Romans 1:20 - to recognize the reality of God in the universe itself:  its complexity, beauty, and the forces that continue to shape it).  It is another thing entirely to begin to truly comprehend the nature of that ultimate truth, and to know just how many "details" we are called into greater awareness of when it comes to following Jesus.  On the one hand, getting lost in the many "little details" can be overwhelming - much the way it is in trying to anticipate all of the little things that we need to add to the physical building we are erecting now.  On the other hand, when one truly comes to the place of following Jesus no matter what - the details and the many facets that it might entail for us don't seem to matter.  In fact, as we trust and rely on God more and more, those details are added without even a second thought, as our reliance on the grace and mercy of God gains greater traction in our lives.

Placed in the slab leading into the front doors of our building is a Bible.  It is sealed as a sort of "time capsule," and completely encapsulated in the concrete slab.  It is not a fancy one, but included in it are 3 things besides the Bible.  There are two bookmarks that outline a 90 day reading plan undertaken in the past two years on two separate occasions here, and there is an icon of the Holy Trinity - our church's namesake.  The note included in this encapsulated Bible says:

How can a young person keep their way pure?  By guarding it according to your Word.  

(Psalm 119:9)

The Bible in this foundation is placed as an eternal reminder that all who enter should hear nothing else than the Word of God, and all who leave this place should do nothing else than live by it.  

“Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” 

(Psalm 119:105)

In the end, that is the only truth, the only detail, and the only real thing that we need:  To hear God's Word and to live by it.  All the other details of life will fall in place if this eternal truth of God is life's foundation.