A Time to Build

A Time for Everything 
Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8 NIV

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

My sweet husband loves to build things with wood and I love it when he has the time to create. He is precise and thoughtful as he constructs which means it often takes a lot of time. I am an impatient person, so the anything I plan and attempt to execute need to give me some good feedback pretty quickly, otherwise I get distracted or frustrated.

Building a house, a home, a family, a friendship, a career, a life, or a business takes a lot of time and energy. It requires a vision and the tools for the task. And it is important to have a healthy pace; enough to see progress but not too much to rush the job and cut corners. It requires a lot of planning and doing and effort on our part. There are also many stages and messes and situations that cause challenges to the building process;  things we might see as delays or distractions but can serve as an opportunity to refine our vision for the end goal.

As God works in our lives, weaving all situations and circumstances to show His grace and His glory, we can be sure that He, too, is planning and patient and has a vision for our future. It may look messy and we might be frustrated by detours and delays but His work continues, in and through us.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;  perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. [Romans 5: 1-5 NIV]

I know God is working on my character. And, He knows I need a bit of work. But even as I encounter difficult circumstances in my life, I don’t know that my faith in His goodness and mercy and grace has ever been in question. I have been frustrated. I have experienced disappointment. But my hope is secure.

“My Hope is Built on Nothing Less”
by Edward Mote, 1797-1874

1. My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

2. When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

3. His oath, His covenant, and blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When every earthly prop gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

4. When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found,
Clothed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne!
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

Hymn #370
The Lutheran Hymnal
Text: 1 Timothy 1:1
Author: Edward Mote, c. 1834, cento
Composer: John Stainer, 1873, arr.
Tune: “Magdalen”

On the Way,

Liz