Building Castles - Part One

My Christian faith used to be a strong castle. All the beliefs and doctrines I held onto fit tightly together. Everything was coherent; within the framework, everything made sense.

But then challenges came. My first reaction was to build up my castle walls. I added to them, fortified them, and built them taller and thicker. I turned my castle into a towering fortress.

But the challenges kept coming. Bits of my fortress were slowly chipped off. A brick here, a plank there.

More challenges kept coming. Larger and larger pieces were being chipped off; massive stones were removed. The archways, the ramparts, the walls - peppered with holes all over. I was in a fortress of swiss cheese.

Finally, the castle - my fortress - collapsed. My impenetrable fortress was weakened to the point where it could no longer keep itself standing.

My faith fell apart.

I stood atop the ruins. Everything that kept me safe - that gave me meaning, direction, and purpose in life - had crumbled into a massive heap of stone, wood, and metal.

I don't know why, but I stayed. I decided to rebuild.

For the past year or so of my life I have been rebuilding. Most of the structure is new. Oddly enough, from the outside, my new home resembles my old one. However, on the inside, it is radically different. I have utilized a different construction technique for building my foundation built my foundation. The framing of the walls is altogether different. No longer have I built with stone - which does not bend and sway under pressure - but I have built with wood. Organic, able to absorb stress and pressure by bending and swaying; able to channel and redirect the energy. Alive. Dynamic.

I am in the process of rebuilding a faith, a religiosity, a spirituality that had completely and utterly collapsed. A faith that can stand strong in full view of all the challenges.

Perhaps now you all can understand why I am the way that I am.

Stay tuned for Part Two where I present a list of some of these 'challenges'.

Peace,
Kev

*EDIT: Part Two here.