Over the past year I have been learning a lesson on building that I never have imagined before. Now, I should have understood what it entails to build a house because I have a lot of contractor friends. I know that the most important part of building the house is laying the foundation. But before laying the foundation there is one other step, digging the whole to pour the foundation.
Over the past year and a half The Plant was first conceived in a long distant dream, to forming a team and then launching out into the scarry place called, "The World." We have done the hard work of figuring who we are looking to target, what our minisrty philosophy will be and most importantly begin to build community amongst the people of the church. Now, this all seems like we are building the foundations of our new little church, right? Wrong, what God has shown me is that we have been digging so that the foundation of the church can now begin to be laid.
The reason you dig the ditch is to clear the rocks and stumps out of the way, to make sure the ground is good for building on. Lastly, you then need to grait the area so that the foundation will be on level solid ground. This is the hard job, the strenous job and quite frankly the boring, not so glamorous job. It entails getting really dirty and dealing with dillemas that you may have never seen before. Yep, that was this year.
I have one thought about digging the ditch, "Praise God!!!" This has been one of the hardest and most lonely times in my life. It has also been one of the most exciting, risky and stretching years. I truly believe that this stage, digging the ditch is the most crucial time. It is also the make it or break it times. I praise God because we learn in adversity, we learn in trials and we learn most when we stick to the calling He has given us.
