Architect

The paved path wound up the hill. Step by step, I drifted forward with head on a swivel and wide eyes like the goddess Athena’s sacred owls, the very representation of the knowledge and wisdom I was gaining in this trek. Each marble block I passed brought me moments closer to my ultimate destination. 

For years I had wanted to be an architect, and for years even before that, I had wanted to see the Parthenon, one of my original inspirations. Greece held its place as the top country on my bucket list. I finally resided in it for a couple short weeks, and it brought me to my dream.

While closing in, I stopped with the group at the theatres. We paused, we marveled, and we continued. The final ascent dropped us at the top of the Acropolis, and I stared at the Parthenon only a 100m sprint away, but an attempt would have been met with whistles from the  undercover security. If I had waited this long, I could keep waiting. 

Was this really something that I had been waiting so long for? Was it worth it? Was it all I dreamed it would be?

No, it wasn’t, at least not in the way that I had expected. 

This place had been my inspiration in the same way that past mission trips became my inspiration to give up on plans of becoming an architect. Seeing the Parthenon only confirmed my previous decisions. Marble shone against the blue sky. Columns rose, still supporting the top, and the sun peaked between them. Even in its destructed state, it was the crown of the Acropolis and Ancient Greece. To say it straightforwardly, it was beautiful, ruined and all, but it wasn’t what I wanted.

Beautiful or not, it was really just a very old, broken building. I tried to imagine what it would have been like to walk there a few thousand years ago. The Parthenon was a temple to Athena and the center of the Greek religious center during their Golden and Classical periods. Despite the heathen purpose, I can marvel in knowing that disciples like Paul would have seen this building in its original glory and preached to that community. 

The Parthenon had been preserved for such a long time, and I imagined building something that would last that long. Maybe thousands of years in the future, people would still marvel at something I built, but eventually, it would only be like the Parthenon—remains of pillars and piles of rock. 

I looked to my team around me and knew that as cool as it would be to build something like the Parthenon, I would rather build relationships with those around me. I would rather travel the world and see the buildings that other people have designed, and if I’m in a construction zone, I want it to be because I’m blowtorching the paint off a wall to help remodel a church or laying insulation in a church attic. 

This trip is helping to make me into the kind of architect that I want to be—a builder of God’s kingdom. I am just a worker and tool that God uses to design His everlasting kingdom. His temple is His church, and His church is His people. I’ve seen many beautiful cathedrals in my travels and have admired the art and structure, but better yet are the small country churches nestled along a river in Nepal or hiding in a dirt alley in Mongolia where the floor is fake lawn and drawings of children decorate the walls. These are the best buildings because they are filled with God’s people singing His praises and worshiping with their whole being. Who cares what the building looks like when it sounds like the songs of heaven?

So, yes, seeing the Parthenon fulfilled my dream built in the past, and it was amazing, but now it is left in the past just like the marble pillars themselves. More importantly, being there confirmed that my dream is really to do something that will help the people around me rather than the mansions I dreamed of. I’m happy to put up a ger in Mongolia or sand stairs in Greece, because I really do have fun with it, but more so because I get to serve alongside fellow believers to build physical places of worship, relationships, and Christ’s Church.

Reese’s Passage – 6th Installment

Hello and welcome to another installment of Reese’s Passage! Greece was a far more turbulent place than I had expected. Riot police were everywhere and extreme unrest between the police and university students was obvious. Graffiti was sprawled across almost every block we went down, and according to our service connection, Urban Chapel, there were very few Christians. In fact, there was a lot of hostility towards Christians as was seen when a group of rabble rousers threw rocks through the window of the church (previous to our time there). The pastor’s response however, gave me a lot to think about; instead of being angry and immediately resolving who had to pay for the damages, he went upstairs and simply prayed. From that, he developed multiple new outreach programs that have been successful. He allowed God to work His goodness through the situation. 

Now as I have this thought consciously in my mind, I find many ways to exercise such a philosophy that I would otherwise answer habitually. We don’t always immediately adopt new lifestyles, so just like any other time, prayer and time with God to purposefully refocus ourselves is a supernatural advantage to aid us. Hopefully, we can all learn to choose the latter option and take the opportunities we have to point to Christ

I was reminded that we have the choice to either see a wrong as a chance to get even, or an opportunity for God to work. For example, when I was driving an electric scooter through the busy town of Athens, my fellow ATW scooter buddy decided to cut me off, sending me into a tree. I had a couple options: should I hunt him down and exact my holy revenge by boarding his vessel and removing the scooter from him while hurling insults about his most sensitive insecurity? Or could I take the attention I just grabbed flying off the scooter to accept the help of a passerby, and possibly sparking a conversation that God would work through? I like the latter.