Under Construction

"Death is so final. Whereas life, ah life is so full of possibilities." Tyrion Lannister

Welcome to the first installment of "Markings". This is a blog related to St. Mark's UMC, located in Memphis, TN. I serve as the pastor here. The quote above, from one of the characters in George Martin's fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire, seems appropriate for this installment, "Under Construction". This blog is just beginning and, so, under construction. At my home, we are re-building the kitchen, so we are under construction. St. Mark's has just endured a burst water pipe, so, we are under construction. Since I am not dead yet (cue "Spamalot") I am under construction, in my body, mind and soul. So are you. So are all of us.

What I have been reminded of, during the construction at my home, in the church and as part of my pastoral life, is that being under construction is messy, dirty, untidy and more than a little wearying. A natural tendency is to curtain off the area under construction, that is, keep the kitchen doors closed or the flooded Sunday school office shut up so that none of the mess and dirt that are part of the construction there, get into your life over here. That's just not possible. People come into and out of closed off areas. Review, consultation, re-starts are normal and they open the closed off areas up to the rest of the home, church, life.

There is a way to avoid all the mess, certainly. Stop the work. End construction. Terminate growth. What you have, then, is final. What you don't have, though, is life. Only life is full of possibilities (thank you, Tyrion). And life is "so" full of possibilities, positive and negative, both. In the kitchen at home, I might connect the disposal the wrong way. The result would be a mess. That's negative. Or, I might connect all the pipes and wires the right way and create a nicer kitchen.

Spiritually, I am, we all are, constantly under construction. Prayer, service, reading, reflection, actions, quiet, work, and contemplation are ways of being under construction, ways of participating with the divine in the life long construction of who you are. I find that those practices can't be closed off, shut off, restricted to one part of my life. That's ok. The messiness of life is a good sign that something may be being built. Construction is so full of possibilities.