rebuilding

Solomon's Temple was grand. Anyone who remembered it held the vision as the standard of excellence for a House of God. So the second building of the Temple brought tears to those old timers eyes. Cyrus the conqueror had decreed that the Jews could rebuild their Temple, according to his wishes and their plans.

Rebuilding is hard. It is more expensive than the first time. Rebuilding suffers from the grand memories of the old timers. Rebuilding restores the emotional baggage of the original structure. Rebuilding seems like such a second level effort. Can't we do something new?

The incredible failure of the Jewish people and their Temple leads one to ask, "Why bother rebuilding?" Why, God, why try this failed route again? Then again in another 500 years.

There is no easy answer to this why question. Perhaps the worship and attention of God was not yet fully developed to survive without an earthly outpost. The scattered people did not have a unifying factor of a Savior, or the Word. The Jews were like all the other nations and quickly diluting their heritage in the commerce of daily life. Syncretism was merging pagan beliefs into the Jews faith practices. The prophets were rapidly becoming irrelevant and out of date. The priestly class was ignored as out of touch. 

The reality of "The People of God" was slipping away on earth. 

The answer was to rebuild, jealously rebuild in the face of multiple threats. Restoring the focus of worship and Torah to daily life was the ancient answer for God. Turn back to engage forward seems to be the plan. 

We too, must rebuild when our faith crumbles. We may wail at the losses incurred. We often sense the new just isn't the same as before. We are older, wiser, more grace oriented, yet stiffer in the truths. God calls us to rebuild and the faithful respond. We copy God and start from the rubble left after the storm to build anew. To build different, but the same in function. To continue in the paths less worn. To last longer this time till that moment when this shell of a life is no longer needed and we are one with the Lord Our Savior. 

Friend, take heart, and do the hard work of rebuilding your crashed faith on a better foundation than before. And know that the Lord is with you through it all.