Church Engineering
There was a time once in my younger years that I dreamed of being an architect or an engineer. I dreamed of designing various buildings and bridges that could enrich and enlighten the world with their function and beauty. I became interested in bridges for a while. The bridge that always held a bit of interest for me was the Brooklyn Bridge, because of its mixture of those two areas. It is an iconic symbol for New York, and one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States. The whole suspension bridge part really fascinated me. It was the fact that with steel cable that this bridge could hold innumerable tons of weight as if it were no task at all.
It was built on simple concepts of physics and human ingenuity, but the suspension bridge serves as a great example of how mankind has a need for each other in order to accomplish great things. We each are individual cables formed by the hands of God (Psalm 139.13), and we were each created unique and individualistic. We each bring forth a strength and ability that enables us to accomplish the will of our Father and in doing so we further the Kingdom of Heaven through His will. God has created us to be strong, because He is strong himself. We can be strong because the blood of Christ provides the ability for us to be strong in His presence (Rom. 16.25).
However, the body of Christ is much like a suspension bridge. We have a great weight that we must carry, and it seems too often we attempt to carry this burden alone. We become self reliant on our strength and begin to discount the strength of Christ in our life. We become a lone strand of cable trying to hold up an entire bridge full of weight alone. We hold the weight of sin, disappointment, prejudice, guilt, regret, hatred, spitefulness, and the responsibility to reach out to others all alone. It gets too heavy for us, and we eventually burn out in our own faith. However, the more we can become like a suspension bridge the stronger we can become. Each of us has to surround ourselves with other followers of Christ, and begin to support the weight together. Where I am weak, you may be extremely strong. Where you are week, I may excel in holding that weight. We begin to distribute this weight evenly, and light the burden of everyone involved. How does this happen? 1.) Become a part of each others lives. (Acts 2.42). 2.) Confess your sins to those that you trust within the body of Christ and pray about them together (James 5.16). 3.) Bear each other’s burdens (Gal. 6:2). The fact of the matter is that we are stronger together as a Family of God than we are when we try to do it on our own.
