If You Build It They Will Come

"If you build it they will come." I am sure you remember this famous line from the Kevin Costner movie, Field of Dreams. As I was driving a couple of days ago I passed a beautiful home. I marveled at the pristine manicured lawn and the way the cement driveway seemed to rhythmically wind to and fro until it met the street. The windows sparkled like diamonds in a soothing setting of buttercup stucco. "Wow," I thought, "I wonder what it's like to live inside those walls." That is when that line from the movie came flooding back to me. But what did it mean? So I started searching the deep things of my heart asking God to reveal all that was within concerning my consumer mentality. "If you build it they will come." "Who will come Lord?" As I allowed God to take me to a place I am not proud of, I was startled by my reaction to the question. I was confronted by the worlds idea of happiness and prosperity. If you build it, peace will come. If you build it, friends will come. If you build it, happiness will come. If you build it, the perfect marriage will come. If you build it, comfort will come. If you build it, popularity will come. Power will come. Success will come. If you build it, everything you have ever wanted will come. Isn't that really the message that our world continues to nag us with.
Then very softly I heard the Lord speak. Not in an audible voice but in a soft knowing in my spirit. "If you come, I will build it." I knew the meaning instantly. If you come to Me, I will give you all that you long for. I am so often confused just exactly what it is I long for. Gratefully God is not. He knows that my longing goes much deeper than the stuff of this world.
As I sat there thinking of the words just spoken I came to the same conclusion I have so often when confronted by the reality of my own wants. I can spend the rest of my life trying to obtain all the things I THINK will make me happy or I can spend the rest of my life pursuing One thing knowing that that One thing will open the gates of over abundant blessings. In that One, the person of Jesus Christ, I have the opportunity to live in peace given to me by the Peacemaker. I can have comfort given to me by the Comforter. I can live in joy given to me by the only One who understand the root of all joy. I can live in the midst of so many things that the world will tell me I have to build for myself. All the while Jesus just says, "Come to me and I will build it." In fact He says it this way in Matthew 11...
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."


Ahh rest. No more striving or clawing to get what I think I need. No more grasping so tight that my fingers turn white to keep what I already have. I just need to do the one thing He has asked. "Come to me." My prayer for you and for myself today is that we would do just that. Go to Him and ask Him to build. He was a carpenter you know!


Blessed to be His