Built to Last

The other day, I watched this documentary on cities that no longer exist. They were all U.S. cities once housing individuals who rode the waves of success to make their towns boom. But in the end, oversight of what the people genuinely needed resulted in horrible disaster. In one town, the mining industry somehow surfaced a chemical that caused brain damage in people and seeped into the water supply!

Imagine your life as a city. Or maybe a house. How do you build it to last? You know those ancient cities like Cairo and Athens that never quit? It's not that they don't change, or that there aren't any ruins in them. Still, people line up to see the ruins of structures that once housed something glorious. It's not necessarily the physical beauty, but the victory, power, or glory of what happened there, that attracts awe. Glory lingers. Love, strength, and miracles outlast even the externals!

The City of your life is one where many come and go, giving and receiving valuable resources, building harbors, taking refuge in existing harbors, being birthed. What would make your City last? Sometimes cities are remembered because they are loud and notorious. Being remembered and living on are not the same, though. Ancient Rome was known for its cruelty, but no one wants to recreate that. Rather, Jerusalem even in its turbulence has lasted through the rise and fall of empires!

Your city carries a unique glory when it's cultivated with wisdom and guidance. It could be your creativity as an artist, your innovation as an inventor or a strategist, your strength of character as an athlete, or perhaps your way of putting people at ease as a comedian, physician, or interior decorator. Maybe it's the character in your heart that lets your family know they can call you anytime about anything. So many ways to burst forth with glory.

Sure, maybe the things you build won't last forever in the physical sense. Businesses will rise and fall, structures will deteriorate, and families will grow up. But you know what will last? The heart healing you give people. The smile you give to a passerby that reminds him of love in the world. The elderly person you allow to sit down, reminding her that her years have earned her respect and not obsolescence. The hope that your pure-hearted business strategy brings your customers. They'll pass that hope to their children's children!

Long after you've breathed your last, your love will have prepared them to know Love Himself. And that, my friends, is how your City, positioned as a life-giving center of hope and restoration, will carry power long after your gone! JOY!