Steps to Nowhere

""Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?" - Luke 14:28 (NIV)

There is a church in my old Queens, New York neighborhood where a building project has been going on since at least the early 1980s. For most of that time - until just a few years ago, it consisted of nothing but steps in front of a huge gaping hole. The sign in front, "Building to be completed in 1980, 1989, 1995, 2000, 2009..."  They stopped changing dates after 2012. I am embarrassed for the church leaders and congregation and I don't even know who or where they are. They have, quite literally, created a money pit and don't have the guts to pull up stakes and quit. 

Because I think in pictures, I couldn't help but ask the Lord what the "story behind this story" is:
When Jesus was quoted in the passage by Luke, of course he wasn't talking about church building projects but about the building project of the Christian life. Peter calls us "living stones being built into a spiritual house". But so often this house remains a fixer-upper.

What about Believers who have been in the faith 10, 15, 50 years and still don't have faith, still can't pray for themselves, still have no regular bible reading habit, still doubt God's love and still can't love others? Where and what is the disconnect? What must the world think of us when our spiritual jeeps stay stuck in the mud just as often as the non-believers'?
Personally, God has had me on a long term renovation project. He only shows me a few areas of my life each year that need major overhaul lest I become discouraged. But the progress is not measured by its completion as much as by another floor being added. (O.K. Linda, it's time to move past the "I can't trust God' deal and get into the 'I must stop holding grudges' deal.)

I must admit: that spiritual jackhammer hurts! Will I lay on the sawhorse long enough for God to cut away my favorite sins or shave off my ungodly tendencies? Will I let Him cast me, yet again, into that refiner's fire to burn off more of the dross of my own carnality and selfish desires? Will I do this of my own volition as many times as it takes?

Maybe our altar calls should be fewer but deeper. Maybe we should insist people think long and hard before they decide to follow Jesus at all. As tempting as it is to "count coup" - see how many converts we get each week -  maybe we should have them count the cost, instead. That's what Jesus did. And just maybe more of our buildings would get completed.