Process.

I’ve had the opportunity this fall to be in some big cities – Philadelphia, New York, Miami, Atlanta, Chicago.  I love big cities – the fast pace, diversity, and plethora of things to do energizes me. I even find the traffic fun – as long as it’s moving.

But the thing I’m usually drawn to the most?  The buildings.  I love seeing the huge buildings.  Being from northern Indiana where the tallest thing in the area is a corn stalk :),  I always marvel at their height:  skyscrapers that once were thought impossible, are now almost common place.  And the creativity and design of some?  Blows me away.

You ever think about who built the buildings? Not who designed them, or the company that financed them – who physically built them?  Tools in hands, sweat on their brow.  Challenging weather, crazy heights.  Risky stuff – month after month. Someone showed them the blueprint – and they made it happen.  No buildings (to my knowledge) were named after them, but they made it happen.

You ever think about the insides of the building? Not the hall ways or beautiful stairwells – but the real insides.  The ugly gray concrete walls and footers.  The unfinished metal and rough-edged beams.  Miles of wire and buckets of hardware.  We enjoy the skin – the colored glass, the finished exterior – but this is the stuff that makes the building what it is.

You ever think about what the building cost? Not the loans financed by a bank – I mean the real cost.  The enormous energy that goes into dreaming and crafting the details and design.  The battles that are waged in final design, budget decisions, and reworks.  The time line and delays. The injuries and casualties as a result of mistakes and misses.  Our jaws drop at the dollars and cents it takes – but this is the real cost.

You ever enjoy the finished product?

Yes.

Me, too.

We all do.

But sometimes we see the beauty and don’t realize the work it took to make it beautiful.

Sometimes we want the finished product without doing the work.

Wanna build something big?  Something impacting? Maybe a ministry team, a church…maybe a LIFE?

It will involve others who are flat out committed to helping make it happen; it will take an infrastructure that is healthy and sustainable; it will take a realization that there is always significant work and significant cost to get it done.

But oh, the finished product.