Tearing Down Walls...Sometimes You've Got To Be Careful

A few weeks ago I was approached and asked if I’d mind helping tear down a wall in one of the offices at church.  I was off the next day and didn’t have any plans,so I said I would help.

Now, I’ll be honest with you.  I thought we would go in, take off a few pieces of molding and “tear down” the wall.  But that’s not the way it happened.  It was a process and it took time, because we had to handle certain sections of the wall carefully due to certain piece being reused later.  Plus, had we gone in with a sledge hammer and demolished the wall we would've caused damage to other areas of the office.  So we took our time with the sections with pieces we were trying to save and those sections that we weren’t, we killed; so to speak.

Some of the pieces we took down that would be reused we put in a safe area separate from the “trash pile”.   Other pieces of the wall that weren’t going to be reused we had no mercy on.  We beat it with the hammer, ripped the panels from the nails and jerked the 2 x 4’s from their setting.  We didn’t care how it looked once removed, because it was trash and we knew it was never going to be used again.  However, we had to handle those pieces carefully and place them in an area that wasn’t a heavy traffic area because those pieces had nails and sharp edges that could be dangerous to someone if stepped on or rubbed against. 

During the process of the demolition our Pastor said those famous words spoken by President Ronald Reagan, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall”.  I told him after he said that that there was a sermon in this process.  I didn’t realize that tearing down a wall could contribute to a life lesson, but it did.

Both pieces we removed had potential; one the potential to bring beauty and delight and the other the potential to bring pain and torment. 

We build walls to provide us with protection, beauty, privacy, and most importantly, separation.  That last provision is the one we tend to use the most.  We want it to separate us from people, places and circumstances and we expect it to stand for a long time.  However, the reality is we’ve built the wall using material such as bitterness and resentment, which do nothing but cause the wall to become a hindrance in the future.   It’s that kind of material that causes the wall to become stronger and harder to remove later.   The wall will stand for a long time, but the separation and so called protection it brings isn’t what we set out to accomplish when we built it.  The separation it brings keeps us from associating with people and the false protection keeps us from accomplishing our dreams and goals and achieving our greatest potential. 

See the importance in tearing down that wall?  Again, there’s some material you’ll want to save when tearing down a wall.  The support boards of encouragement, the beautiful trim pieces of a positive attitude and a strong mind used as a frame to support the door of opportunity.   So, you ready?  If so, let’s begin the process of tearing down and remodeling.

Just my thoughts on a page…