SCUFFED FLOORS AND MARKED WALLS

A few years ago I was in a gospel meeting in one of our large American Cities. I had not been in the church building long before I noticed how immaculately kept it was. The floors were shiny and polished and the walls were a pristine white without a single mark on them anywhere.

I started thinking about our church building at home with its scuffed and scarred floors, stained carpet in some class rooms and black marks on the white walls. I began to wonder why our building was not as shiny and clean looking as theirs was. We had a fine Christian family who cleaned the building each week. We all did our part to pick up and straighten up after each service.

I mentioned these thoughts to one of the elders. “We would consider it a blessing if we had the problems that you say you have in your building”, he replied. “Your walls are scuffed and your floors are scratched because you have children in your congregation. Your building is in constant need of maintenance because you are constantly using it. Our building looks new because we don’t have any children or young families in our congregation. Our building rarely needs any maintenance because we only use it a few hours a week for worship!”

I have often though about what he said and he was right. Our building is used every day of the week. Our building is a command center for a myriad of activities! Our congregation is blessed to have young families with children ranging in age from infants all the way up to teenagers. Sure all of this activity and all these different age groups take their toll on a facility, but what is a building for but to use in the Lord’s service and to His glory?!