Prayer is
the
“solution”
in
resolution!
mausoleum in a nearby cemetery where he was buried in 1924 at 88.
As we start a new year, it's good to remember we, too, are building
one day at a time, one small gesture at a time. We tend to focus on the
big, bold and dramatic developments but it's the ordinary stuff that
makes us who we are and shapes how we react to those larger events.
As our lives undergo construction, Christ must be the cornerstone but
he often starts out as a stumbling block. For many of us, Jesus is the
Rock that trips us up; the one who throws us off stride when he gets in
our way, pursuing us through circumstances we can't control or insights
he brings to us through volatility or adversity. If we stop long enough to
examine what he has to offer and begin to carry him with us, we find a
new mission and meaning in life. With fresh perspective, we see the
glory of the ordinary, the potential for good of even common things.
Each day, we assemble and cement the raw material from which we
build our relationships and our legacy: attitudes of selflessness and
service; words of courage, encouragement and compassion; and small
acts of kindness that ultimately come together into something much
bigger and more complex — something unique that springs from our
personality, passion and perseverance. All of that will cost us extra time
and effort and demand we leave the safe, predictable route to find what
we're looking for. But it's worth it.
We'll need to remember that as many write us off as deluded idealists.
But if we persist, proving faithful in the small things, God will fill our
spiritual pockets, then our baskets and, eventually, our wheelbarrows.
He'll provide illumination through the Lamp of his Word as we put
together the pieces of every day into a grand design that takes years to
unfold. Ultimately, what we build will not only embody our life but our
death. The godly things we gather will eventually become, not a
mausoleum but a mansion, an ideal palace built by the love and power
of Jesus and not our human effort.
Addressing the need to be spiritual and productive, Solomon wrote in
Ecclesiastes, "For everything there is a season, a time for every activity
under heaven... A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones."
(vv.1,5) The time to gather those stones is now.
VOLUME 37, NUMBER 1
January 1, 2012
Rock Solid
French postman
Ferdinand Cheval made a
commitment to himself in
1879. It took him 33
years but the mailman
finally delivered.
After leaving school at
age 13 to become a
baker's apprentice,
Cheval entered the postal
service in 1867. His route in southeastern France was 32 kilometers or
20 miles a day and the nimble man with a bushy mustache and
determined eyes led a typical life until circumstances tripped him up.
One April day, he stumbled because of a stone which he stopped to
pick up. Inspired by its unusual shape, he took it home and somehow hit
upon a strange idea. Starting the very next day, the postman began
picking up stones during his daily rounds, which he used to build what
he hoped would be le Palais Ideal, "the ideal palace".
For more than three decades, Cheval collected stones each day, first in
his pockets, then in a basket and, eventually, in a wheelbarrow. At night
he would cement them by the light of an oil lamp as locals shook their
heads at him. His stone collecting added 8 kilometers a day to his route
but Cheval didn't mind the extra work or the derision. "I knew that
throughout history men who were not understood have been held up to
ridicule, even persecuted," he wrote.
Through the years, the Palais became a mix of styles with elements
resembling everything from a Swiss chalet and medieval castle to an
Arab mosque and Hindu temple. When completed, it was 26 meters or
85 feet long and up to ten meters or 33 feet high. Cheval, who was 75
when the palace was finished, wanted to be buried in it but authorities
refused permission. So he spent another eight years building a