May 13 The Importance of Quiet Times

I Kings 6:7 In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other it on tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.

Can you imagine that? Those who were building the temple could actually hear themselves think. That said, I think there was still plenty of noise as they shouted to one another to move it this way or slide it over that way, or get out of the way. Perhaps the sounds of camaraderie echoed off from the huge blocks of stone, the laughter of men working on a common goal as members of a team, each one knowing his task, yet still able to laugh with one another. Perhaps they chatted about what they were going to do at the end of the day or what they had for breakfast. After all they were human men doing a job, and no matter how important the task, how reverent they might be at times, they still were people working together.

There was no cutting at the building site, no tools for cutting. The stones arrived at the building site shaped and ready to use. I wonder what that says to us today....a metaphor for the importance of being well-prepared for the tasks we attempt of the jobs we assume. Somewhere men labored over that stone with all kinds of stone-cutting tools, a task that required time, dedication, perseverance, and imagination...seeing what was inside the rough boulders they were shaping into a part of the House of God.

I think of us who work at BBC, or church workers, or anyone who has a part in the shaping of a life whether as a parent or friend or teacher of any kind. We must remember the goal, and that it requires time and focus and hope. Students come here in all stages of their spiritual growth, and as we work with them over a four-year period, we watch beautiful works of art, works of God emerge from those rough beginnings. But it would never happen if we gave up early on because of the size of the task.

So we work as a team, here at BBC and there in your churches, and we make a lot of noise as we shape the lives before us. Then, in silence and prayer, we send them out from our hands, for God to place in the wall of His Church, His Body.

Oh, I know there are errors perhaps in the semantics of what I have just said, but I do think the idea is valid, the metaphor valid. Lots of hard work and dedication and faith that God will use what we are doing for His glory though we might never see exactly the place in the wall our students assume.