“Under Construction” is probably one of the last signs we
want to see on a road trip. Generally
that means there will be one lane of traffic and travel will slow to a
crawl. No matter how many miles ahead of
the construction they tell us to merge right or left, there will be a long line
of those who ignore the signs and want to be let in ahead of others, which
slows down the traffic even more.
If you live in a city the size of Charlotte, there seems
to always be construction going on somewhere.
For as long as I can remember, there have been talks, and plans about the
building of the I-485 loop.
But construction of any project has to be done ‘decently and in order’
(a good Presbyterian phrase).
We are visiting my oldest grandson who is completely enamored
with any vehicle that has a role in construction projects - ‘diggers’, bulldozers, cranes, graders, backhoes, tractors,
and cement trucks. His new favorite toy
is a cement mixer that his granddaddy got for him. When he begins playing, the first toy truck to
his ‘construction site’ is his cement truck.
His engineer granddaddy keeps trying to explain to him, that before you
pour the concrete he needs to have his bulldozer and grader smooth over the
area.
Construction does take time to be done correctly. For those
of us in the slow traffic, we need to remember that there is the surveying stage, the
clearing stage, grading, laying of asphalt and all the tasks in between. If it is not done in the correct order and
each step is completed before beginning another, it will fall apart even earlier
than it is projected to need repairs.
Life is a construction project. We are building layer upon
layer and if we rush the job, we miss those things we should have learned about
along the way. We all need to imagine
each other wearing our own ‘under construction’ sign as a reminder to
everyone, that we are not complete. We
are at one stage of the process or another, but we are not finished.
The Apostle Paul wrote a letter to a church in Thessalonica.
Closing the letter he penned these simple words, “…we urge you, brothers and
sisters, admonish the unruly, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be
patient with all…” (1 Thess. 5:14)
At the Billy Graham Library, you will find Ruth Graham’s gravesite. Her
epitaph was one she selected years before. I think it is a perfect epitaph for her, and
maybe all Christians.
When we are dealing with people, Christian or non-Christian,
it will help us to remember that we are all ‘under construction’ and our patience
will be appreciated.
No comments:
Post a Comment