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The God Who Rebuilds: Finding Faith to Build What God Has Put in Front of You

September 13 – November 15

Everyone knows what it’s like to live in the ruins. It might be the ruins of a relationship, the ruins of a health diagnosis or a chronic condition, the ruins of a job you’ve made a mess of, or a family dynamic that has been broken for a long time.

American author and Nobel Prize winner Ernest Hemingway had a character named Mike Campbell who was asked how he went bankrupt. “Two ways,” he said. “Gradually and then suddenly.” Ruins are built the same way. A great fortress of a marriage can turn into the ruins of roommates who were once excited. The virtue of temperance can crumble when a bottle moved from the weekend into the week. Ruins are also revealed in a number you know by heart and have not dialed in three years. Or a habit you have quit so many times the quitting is part of the habit. Nobody plans these.

It comes gradually, then suddenly, and then it is simply where you live. The Bible has a word for living in a place you never chose, far from the life you were made for, partly through what was done to you and partly through what you did. The word is exile. You don’t have to stay stuck in a rut of ruin.