Building Potential
This past weekend our family celebrated my daughter’s birthday. As a parent, it’s such an incredible feeling to watch her and her brothers get older. I love seeing their personalities develop and their passions emerge. My daughter is a young girl with many passions and interests. One thing that has consistently caught my attention through the years is her creativity. Specifically, it’s not just the imaginative ideas that are often observed in childhood, but her ability to express her creativity through building. She will get something in her head that she wants to make or create and will find a way to make it happen. She hates when I throw out cardboard boxes, because those are typically the building blocks of her next great idea. Key pieces that should never be tossed aside. For many others, they’ll see an empty box, but my daughter, she sees something she can build. She has a mind that sees what “can be” while so many others see what “is.” And when she’s done building, even though I may be a biased dad, I can’t help but marvel at what she’s been able to build and how she brought her vision to life.
I think we all can have similar reactions when we see something being built. When the process of what “is” morphs into what “can be” we can’t help but marvel. I think this is something worth considering when we think about relationships within the body of Christ. Yesterday, we talked through Romans 14 and the way in which it encourages us towards healthy community. The verse that leapt off the page when I first read through it was verse 19. “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.” The word edification literally means “to build.” It is derived from the word that is used for houses and therefore carries the idea of building homes, temples, etc. I think it is so striking that it can be translated in such a way that is applicable to relationships. Paul encourages the church in Rome to make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual building.
The idea I believe he’s trying to get across is that we are to build each other up. Is this not an area where the church should excel? At building each other up? Mutual edification should be the hallmark of the community of faith. Now, Paul offers an equally important reminder that such building takes a tremendous amount of effort. Lord knows the evil one will do all he can to tear down, therefore, as believers we must never lose sight of the fact that mutual edification requires a tremendous amount of resolve and a tremendous amount of effort. Even more so, that the goal of our efforts should be towards peace. But how? How do we do this?
I think that’s where I tend to take a lesson from my daughter. The key is to see what can be. Too often we look at our personal relationships or we look at our churches and we see an empty box. But the Gospel is a power that proclaims incredible and all-consuming transformation. It reaches into the depths of sin defeats what is and leads us into the glory of what can be. As long as we hold tight to such a hope, the effort remains worth it. Therefore, let me encourage you today and for the rest of this week to imagine what can be. Imagine what God can build in you, in your relationships, in your church, in your community, in this world. Let us be people committed to peace and mutual edification. May the Holy Spirit be at work and may we all marvel at what God can build.