Brick by Brick...

This week's quote is:

"....the brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough. They are there to stop the other people.....Brick walls are there for a reason. They give us a chance to show how badly we want something."

~"Romancing the Brick Wall"
from The Last Lecture
by Dr. Randy Pausch~

Yup! Brick walls are there for a reason. Sometimes God puts them there as a test in the obstacle course of life to see how badly we want something as in the quote above. Other times, we build them ourselves - supposedly for "protecting" our hearts from hurt.

It doesn't matter what kind of brick wall you're up against - sooner or later, it has to be challenged either by climbing over it or taking it down brick by heavy brick. God designed us that way.

No one can live behind a brick wall forever. Oh - I tried. As a child I walled up part of my heart after being hurt by abuse because I didn't know any other way to protect that wounded part of myself. I even hung pretty pictures on the walls of memory to camouflage the bricks on the public side of it. But the private hurting part of me behind the wall grew weaker and weaker with repeated bouts of depression until I reached a point where I had to tear the wall down or die.

There must have been some places where the chinking was missing in that wall I built, because I could hear Jesus on the other side speaking lovingly. Sometimes I'd even find little morsels of hope on my side of the wall. It was enough to eventually give me the strength to want that wall to go rather than guarding it fiercely with my dying breath.

That's all it took - that whispered desire to see the wall torn down. Jesus was right there to take down the first brick. Then He could strengthen me in earnest with hope and love for the rest of the demolition process.

It was tedious. Often I felt too weak and tired to continue. So He let me rest a bit, but never for long at the risk of becoming complacent. A hunger for freedom and wholeness grew until it consumed the weakness and complacency. Dreams of a future and a hope woke me in the night, spurring me to get up and work on that wall again.

The old wall of "protection at any cost" had to be torn down and a new, healthier wall of personal boundaries erected - a wall that allows healthy interaction with the outside world and intimate interaction with Him and trusted others. It was in the process of overcoming that wall that I finally found healing and purpose.

I think I would take Dr. Pausch's statement one step further - the brick walls in life do give us a chance to show how badly we want something - they also develop our spiritual problem-solving abilities and trust muscles as we work at scaling or removing them!

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Our In Other Words hostess today is http://www.4him2u.com/home_made.htmlIf you'd like to play along today, simply blog about the quote on your blog site, then visit Lori and leave your blog address in the Mr. Linky box.

Be sure to read Lori's take on the quote and leave a comment. If you get a chance, stop by the blogs of the other participants as well to see what they've shared about today's quote.