Dr. Lobody recounted the beautiful history of Coventry Cathedral (Coventry, England - for a virtual tour click here). It was bombed during World War 2. As the town decided how to rebuild, they were faced with some options.
- Leave the ruins as a tribute.
- Remove the ruins and build something new on top of them.
- Abandon the site and start fresh somewhere else.
- Find a way to incorporate the ruins into the new design.
I wonder how many times in our lives we see failure or difficulty or pain and choose one of the other options.
We leave the ruins and can't ever get past them. Maybe it was a failed relationship so we never open up again. Maybe it was a painful experience that we just can't get past.
We remove the ruins as though they were never there and just keep plugging away. It's easier to go forward if we pretend like nothing ever happened. Of course this means we probably don't learn anything from the experience...
We move on, never looking back. In other words, we run away - physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. We don't want to be the person who lived there or experienced that. We just want to start over somewhere else.
Or maybe, we have the courage to do what Coventry did. We celebrate the past, we commemorate the ruins and rubble, and we allow our past experiences to inform us as we move into our new future. Our lives are not isolated incidents. They are a narrative building with each chapter and scene. Each scene must inform the next. Each chapter must help shape you into the person God is calling you to be.
As you move forward in your story, embrace your experiences (good and bad) as resources for a bank of wisdom. Celebrate what has happened around you and learn from everything. You are not alone. You are surrounded by "a great cloud of witnesses" cheering you on - in Heaven and here on earth! Keep moving forward, but do it with the wisdom of a life of experiences used for God's glory as you become all God has called you to be.
Under the Mercy,
Jason
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