Building faith has some similarity to other kinds of construction. It takes initiative, imagination, skill, science, professionalism, commitment, collaboration, hard work, trial, error, patience, perseverance, endurance, toil, toll, tools, and teamwork.
Most constructions start with a rough sketch, then a detailed design, then the architectural drawings, and finally the detailed plans.
Architects don’t construct; that’s the job of engineers and skilled and experienced technicians. Many diverse and specialized workers are needed to complete the job.
The growing construction is constantly being monitored, and original plans may need to be adjusted and revised in light of lived experience.
And, you know how architecture can be. The style of many a great work may become dated; the artistic standards may change and fluctuate. But, no matter what, the construction must be apt to serve its primary purpose—and even reasonably compatible with other, nearby, and similar buildings.
Faith is one of those great enterprises that take more than one lifetime to complete. That means that at times it’s hard to discern where things are going, what is the importance of certain aspects of it, what the completion really will look like.
The foundations of faith are necessary to support the whole building, but they’re not meant to be the be-all and the end-all of the construction. Homes may have basements, but they’re not usually designed to be the preferred living quarters.
Foundations must bear the weight of what is yet to come, and the construction needs to continue.
In the Bible there’s a warning about building, the Tower of Babel: some things are ill-planned and exceed the possibilities of human construction.
Our personal faith is a never-ending construction. Collectively, faith is an enterprise so vast and complex that it gradually is shaped and grows over interminable generations.
The fruit of centuries of endless reflections, revisions, and development, it exceeds any one merely human plan or model.
Faith grows, so to speak. It has foundations, continual construction following the plans of the creator, and occasional revisions and reconstructions when we workers mistakenly misconstrue or don’t follow precisely the plans.
Faith not only grows. Faith evolves. Faith develops. Faith challenges.
Looking back, we may realize that we learned some things in a childish way. That doesn’t mean that they were wrong or bad, just that we needed to develop from a childish faith to an adult one.
Some prayers and religious practices that used to be very important to us once upon a time may not be quite so important now. They had a value in our spiritual growth, but in some ways we’ve outgrown them.
The Spanish poet, Antonio Machado, wrote: “Caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar”, which could be translated as, “Wayfarer, there is no way; you make your way as you walk.”
That’s not a good description of a life of faith, since it leaves out the action of God in our lives. But, it’s a reminder that each of us must make our own way through life with the help of God.
We have foundations for our faith from long ago, we have updates and models galore, we just need to risk it and live it!
17 April 2022