Infrastructure

There has been a large crew of workers outside my office window over the last few weeks. This week they're installing new utility poles and hoisting up huge reels of cable. Up and down the streets other equipment and workers are digging holes, doing some kind of underground exploratory work. We've been warned that this is just the beginning of a major overhaul of this whole street!

In fact, there is so much infrastructure work planned in this town that wise thinkers at city hall have also instituted a publicity campaign to "placate the masses" and we are also seeing and hearing the slogan It Will Be Worth It in ads, print and broadcast. It's pretty easy to understand; planners realize there's going to be lots of discomfort and inconvenience for several months, maybe years, while we're working on our infrastructure.

We've come to a point in this city, and apparently many others, where the original work done down there under the streets, mostly unseen but really, really important to our smootly functioning lives, needs attention. It might need to be pulled up and totally redone. Hopefully improved materials and technology will make things even better.

What has this to do with our faith story, our congregational life? I know there have been times in my life I wondered if the struggle, the not knowing, the hard questions have made me feel really uncomfortable. I've wished I could just avoid all this "digging" I seemed to have been forced to do. I've wondered if it really was worth it.

But apparently, that's just the way life works. Every so often I get pushed to take a hard look at the foundations of my life and my faith. I spend a few hours, or days or years digging in the basement. And now, having lived through many of those life renovation projects I must say "It IS worth it."

If you're contemplating or in the middle of your own faith infrastructure project, I say Hang in! Keep struggling! It will be worth it.

Posted by Marion