walls

I wish I had time for a long armchair reflection on this topic, but I don’t.

I was just thinking about the idea of recovering from a challenge and how it takes time to bounce back.

And as the cliche says, Rome was not built in a day and having self-compassion.

Even if that sounds like a therapeutic framework, which I’m skeptical of these therapeutic frameworks, but in any event, what came to mind was rebuilding the walls and rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem and the prophet that went and got permission to do that.

And I would love to hear what the rabbis have to say about it, because I think that Christians should always consult the rabbinic tradition when looking at the Old Testament.

And if that’s not obvious, then, you know, think.

So suffice it to say, though, I was thinking about when Jesus said, destroy this temple and within three days I’ll raise it.

And I was thinking about the idea of, you know, kind of our early life, our own agendas, our own walls, and how those can be torn down by life and by difficulties and by metaphorical enemies, and then how Jesus can rebuild those walls.

And you could say that maybe sometimes Jesus can quickly rebuild, although, you know, setting aside obvious, you know, therapeutic realities obviously challenges require, in some cases, a lifetime of psychology and other types of interventions.

But you know, to get on the path, to get on the path with Jesus, we can do that.

We can say that we’re going to be co-crucified with Him.

That doesn’t take a long time to say yes to Jesus.

It does imply, though, a lifetime of struggle, and it doesn’t mean we’re always going to be in our A-game, and it doesn’t even mean that our A-game is defined as the way we think that A-game is defined.

And the main thing is we keep getting up, and we keep calling on God’s grace.

But I just thought that was an interesting metaphor to pull up the idea of our building our own walls, which can take 40 years, and how they can be destroyed, and how they can be raised again in three days through the power of Christ.

And if I were to take the metaphor even a little further, I might say that you can’t really expect the wall to be very high if you build it in three days.

But that goes back to the paradox of the cross.

There is strength in weakness.

So anyway, I don’t know if that helps, but it’s just something I was thinking about.