Foundations have been on my mind lately. Maybe it’s the parish hall, which we’re still working with a team of folks to figure out how to repair it, now that we know how severe the moisture problems are (we hope to have more details on the plan for the congregation soon!). Maybe it’s the conversations about how this community has been able to remain unified and peaceful during the trial going on in Brunswick. Some men from the Department of Justice have been in town for a couple of weeks, offering assistance to local leaders and learning from us about who we are and what we’ve done to foster a spirit of unity. In part, it’s because of the foundations laid by community leaders for decades.
It could also be because of the road project across the way, as we watch the County’s road crew preparing the foundation for a new road bed. So much of the time and effort in that project is to build the right foundation so that that final step, the topcoat of asphalt, will be smooth and safe and durable. Or, it was having the church floor opened up last month so the “bounce” in the floor could be repaired? I got to see how well the foundations of that church were laid – they lasted a long time before needing attention.
So much of what we see around us is resting on things unseen, foundations laid, in many cases, long before us. If the first things aren’t solid and built well, what follows might not be either. We’ve all seen the leaning tower of Pisa. Many of us remember how it was finally stabilized, eliminating some of the lean, but allowing it to continue to be about four degrees off level. Had it not been stabilized, it would have eventually fallen over. Engineers estimate it will stand now for centuries. You couldn’t build a tower like that intentionally and allow it to organically tip like that. Architects have made buildings that “appear” to lean for effect, but there’s a reason that bell tower in Pisa is so famous.
In truth, most of us are leaning towers in our own right. I don’t mean political leaning; I mean the kind of leaning that indicates we aren’t perfect. We’ve got some wear and tear, and maybe the effects of gravity are showing. Struggles, grief, loss, age, health – all sorts of things make us lean a bit, as it were. Think of the woman in the Gospels who was bent over for so long before Jesus healed her, and she stood upright again. We can lean and bend without breaking, as we know. It doesn’t necessarily show up in our posture, like the old V-8 commercials, but I think we know the feeling.
Facades and finishes get most of the glory though, don’t they? We’ll practice daily rituals for smooth skin or nice hair. We’ll wear the clothes that are most flattering and the newest style. We’ll eat the foods we love, that comfort us and bring us the joy that only certain foods can. How often do we work on what’s underneath all of that? How often are we devoting time to the foundation upon which we rest? Probably not in equal measure. I know I don’t.
It’s helpful to assess our foundations from time to time and work on shoring them up and reinforcing what has shifted. We aren’t going for perfection with perfect alignment, only improvement, growth, and stability. We do this when we pray and meditate; when we confess our failures and hear God’s forgiveness; when we offer our imperfect selves at the altar and receive the perfect sacrament of body and blood; when we seek and serve Christ in others.
The reality is that we’re not towers. We’re not static. We move and change all the time, and as such our foundation must be flexible enough to support our lives though ups and downs and twist and turns alike. Fortunately, we build on the solid rock that is God. All the foundations we lay start there. Even when we shift our foundations, the rock on which they rests holds firm. And thank goodness. If it was up to us, we’d be a mess, scattered on the ground, wouldn’t we? We can’t neglect our foundation work. Done regularly, we shouldn’t ever lean so far we fall over.
Tom+
God our builder, in whose perfect wisdom the foundations of the universe were laid and through whose constant love the whole order of things holds together and flourishes with life, bless us all as we constantly construct new things in our lives; give us insight of mind and skilled hands to craft lives that are worthy of your love and grace, through Jesus Christ our Lord.