By Bud Fickley, Director of Student Ministry
So here we are, in the beginning of February 2021, and construction on Dutilh Church started sometime back in August. In case you haven’t been by the church recently to see all the mess that exists as a result of construction, you can go to dutilhchurch.org/makeroom. It’s pretty remarkable, the amount of work that’s happened.
Actually, as a staff person who’s been on site for the majority of the project, I couldn’t fathom, prior to this experience, just how quickly some of this work could be done. The trenches that were dug for underground work would show up one day and just as quickly disappear. An entire side of the building being opened up didn’t take nearly as long as you’d think it should. Rooms being rearranged, resized, or removed – you miss it if you blink.
I don’t know that anyone on staff really understood what it would be like to continue to try to operate while the construction was going on. I can’t tell you the amount of time that was spent moving “stuff’ from one place to another to keep it out of the way of construction but still accessible. Hours were spent figuring out how to rework programs so we could still have them, even though the rooms we needed (or wanted) were already under construction.
Let me tell you, if you’ve never lived or worked in a place that was actively under construction, I don’t recommend it. It’s not for the faint of heart.
In John 3, Jesus is approached by a Pharisee, Nicodemus. Jesus says to him in John 3:3, “I assure you, unless someone is born anew, it’s not possible to see God’s kingdom.” You can read the verse in context here.
Here’s the thing: I think being born anew is a whole lot like being under construction and trying to live through it. We don’t realize just what it’s going to take to get from who we are to who God is loving us to be.
Somewhere, at some point in your life, someone probably told you, “If you pray this prayer…,” or “If you say these words and mean them in your heart of hearts…,” Jesus will come into your life and change you. But I’m guessing that person didn’t tell you about the walls that were going to get torn down, the closets you were going to have to empty out, or the discomfort that was going to go along with this renovation of your heart.
Being born anew isn’t an easy thing. In Romans 12, Paul tells us to be a living sacrifice. I had a pastor once say, “The problem with living sacrifices is, they can keep crawling back down off the altar.”
It’s a strange image if you’re a visual person like me. But the point is, it’s daily work to keep ourselves on the altar. It’s daily work for us to keep doing the construction God wants us to do on our lives. It’s daily work to from keep falling back to the “old you” and to keep living into the you that God intended when he knit you together in your mother’s womb.
It’s ok to admit that this whole Christian thing is hard sometimes. It’s ok to admit that sometimes we fall short of the goal God sets for us. I encourage you to, today, to keep working on yourself, but also to give yourself (and others) Grace when you (or they) fall short of God’s plan. You’re not going to get there while you’re on this earth, but at this point, it’s the journey that matters. The destination is still coming.
Dutilh Church 