Buildings

At the end of the year, I received a calendar from my alma mater. Flipping the pages, I strolled the campus I love, but noticed something by the time I got to May: there were no people in the pictures! While it was wonderful to see familiar buildings, the college, like many colleges and institutions, forgot about the people. They missed the point. They focused on the wrong things.

I’m afraid my college is not unique, and the lesson from the calendar is one for us all. As individuals, families, and groups, we often make the same mistake. We think our family is a name, our worth is a sum, and our identity an occupation. Like the calendar, we miss the point by focusing on the wrong things.

Phillips Chapel, Canterbury School

I’ve been blessed to build three chapels in my life, one a traditional chapel with walls, roof and windows, the other two outside. In each, there was a hunger beneath our efforts. Like cathedrals of old, we strove to say something others would understand just from entering the space, and I feel confident in each case we succeeded, but, I must confess, we also missed the point at times. Our excitement and enthusiasm caused us to focus on the building more than it’s purpose, its form over its function, its donors more than the stained glass windows they gave.

I remember taking a wise old priest over to look at the chapel, and after looking around in awe, he said something I’ve never forgotten: “My prayer for this place is that it wears out and does not rust.” He understood the desire to build something special and then treat it like a museum. He understood the seduction of architecture and the risk of focusing on the wrong thing.

God so love the world, he sent not a committee, the humorous saying goes, but it could be adapted to say, God so loved the world, he sent not a building.

As we begin another year of life, it is my hope and prayer we will look beyond the buildings of our lives and refocus on what matters, the people and purposes we’ve been given.