Building a Wall....part 1

Over the weekend, I got a wild hair and decided to build a retaining wall around our flower bed. The neighbors next to us and the neighbors just down the street both had one built around their beds and it looked really nice and easy to do. So, off to Lowe’s I went. I got all the materials I would need for the job, came home and begin my adventure in building a retaining wall.

I started at the lowest end of the bed, thinking that I would lay the stone and just stack them on top of each other. I mean, how hard could it be to stack brick, right? Well, there is more to it than just laying bricks on top of each other. You have to make sure the ground is level; otherwise the bricks you lay on top will not be sturdy and may fall. Needless to say, I worked hard to ensure I had a firm, level foundation on which to build this wall.
After I got the ground level, I begin to lay the brick down. As I lay each brick, I could see that the outcome of my efforts was going to be pretty nice. Each layer I placed I could tell that this was going to be a strong, supportive and protective wall around this flower bed. Then it hit me….I’ve got another wall that I need to build; the wall that protects my heart, mind and spirit.

I’m reminded of a story about a city that had a wall built around it. This wall was very thick and was able to withstand very heavy attacks from the enemies of the city. And believe me, this city had enemies. One day, a very strong, intelligent, technical savvy enemy began to attack the city. As they beat and pounded on the wall, it soon began to crumble. As the layers of brick, mortar and wood began to give way, the army was able to eventually penetrate and enter into the city. They began to burn the gates that were supposed to help protect the city from attack, and as the gates burned and the walls began to crumple, the armies began to attack the inner parts of the city. The men of this army stole all of the gold and silver they could from the people. They took many items that the people considered precious and priceless. The people were devastated. They couldn’t believe what had happened. Their precious city was destroyed. The wall surrounding them had huge holes and the gates that once helped to protect them had been burned to the ground. No one would have ever thought that such a thing could happen….it was devastating, crushing, demoralizing and embarrassing.

The sad part of this story isn’t the fact that the city was destroyed, but that the walls weren’t rebuilt. No one within the city took the time to learn from the attack and rebuild the walls and gates to withstand another attack of this magnitude. They just let things stay the way they were and carried on with life. Any time an enemy wanted to attack they could and would be successful in bringing more havoc on the people of this city. Even smaller, less trained, less equipped enemies would attack because they knew the walls had been torn down and nothing had been done to rebuild them. Anyone could attack and be successful in causing pain to the people.

How many of you find yourself comparing your life to the city in the story? You’ve been attacked and had your walls and gates destroyed. You’ve had many things that you would consider precious or priceless either stolen or destroyed and felt like you had been humiliated, demoralized and embarrassed by this enemy? We’ve all been there and we’ve all had the same thoughts….I’m tougher than that. We’ve all thought the walls we had built were strong enough to withstand an attack, but there was that one enemy that we didn’t plan for. That one enemy that got through every layer of brick and mortar, each layer of wood and sheet of steel that we had in our wall and destroyed everything we worked hard to protect. But rather than rebuild, we left things the way they were. Now, the new things you try to acquire seem to constantly be stolen or destroyed. Every time you think you’ve got something worth keeping, it slips through your fingers and you ask yourself, why? Maybe it’s because your wall hasn’t been rebuilt. Your enemy sees every time you get something you consider precious and he comes back in through the same hole and steals or destroys what you have.

Well folks, its rebuilding time….just my thoughts on a page.