Statesville is Under Construction and We are too

     When people ask me to describe where I’m from, I often say that when you get to where Interstate 40 and 77 meet there’s Statesville. I’m sure you’ve all seen the construction going on there, the re-mapping of the roads we have known for decades. We’ve also heard a lot of coverage over the proposed Love’s Truck Stop. A professor the other day here at Appalachian mentioned to me that he heard Statesville was having what we in the South call a ‘heated discussion’ over the pros and cons of building that truck stop. I’ll spare you the details of how I feel about all this construction and let you know how I see it from a faith perspective.

            We’re all a little like Statesville. We all are caught between growth and what we know to be our identity. I think for all of our lives we have little (and sometimes not so little) construction projects going on about the landscape of our reality. On the converse side of that we often have demolition projects going on. We aren’t the same people we were five years ago; our existence is a little different than what it will be ten years from now. This may cause alarm to some, but in the beauty of faith, it is a good thing.

            I’m pretty sure God is the best construction manager I’ve ever encountered. Since the dawn of our existence as the human race and our own personal lives, God has been weaving God’s way throughout time and space to make known God’s love for us. This may come in construction projects, as you finally get help for the addiction, the marriage or the friendship. It may come in demolition projects as you learn to let go of your tattered past and celebrate God’s future, it may come as you realize that your friends weren’t the healthiest for you. All these beautiful reminders of love articulate God’s abounding hope spread throughout everything we hold dear.

            So this week, be thankful that there are construction projects going on in our community and in our lives. Because for us to be stagnant, or never changing is to forget the life God calls us to. That isn’t to say that you should never be still and hear the still small voice in the silence. It is to point to that we all go at different speeds at different times in our lives, and that is a beautiful reminder of our commonality that is tied to our Creator.

            I’m not the person I was a year ago, and though that is a normal part of the life cycle that could easily cause pain, bitterness and resentment, I praise God in the knowledge that God isn’t done with me or us yet. There’s still work to be done, there’s still more to be built.