Working in harmony (Ephesians 4:16)

One of the piles of cinderblocks

From whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.--Ephesians 4:16

Belize is a country filled with unfinished buildings.  Anywhere you go over here, you'll see half-built homes and commercial structures.  The sight of rebar poking out of incomplete but still-occupied buildings in this country is the norm--people live and work in them, even though they're not quite done.

Ask a Belizean why this is and you'll be given several theories about the reason so many buildings are incomplete, the most interesting of these is that the people who own these buildings don't have to begin paying property taxes until the building is complete.  As a result many property owners intentionally leave their homes unfinished, even though they may have been living in them for years.

I don't know if this is true or not, but it sounds logical; at least logical when you're in Belize.

Christians are also a type of unfinished structure, and, like the homeowners here, we get to avoid paying the tax that comes from our natures.  And on the day we're finished and all that past due tax comes due, that's the day our tax is forgiven forever.

Pretty cool, huh?

Doing manual labor in the tropical heat is a challenge, as we discovered on our first work day today.  We have a number of projects we're working on at Prince of Peace Church, and all 26 of our team members were nasty, sweaty messes long before noon.

One task today involved hauling two large piles of cinder blocks from the church grounds to the second story of the structure where they will be transformed into walls.  The cinder blocks weigh about 30 pounds apiece, and initially we were hauling them up two at a time using a rope and pulley system.  Since there were hundreds of blocks, and this was a slow process of tying and untying, it was obvious the task would take a team of six people the entire day.

Inspiration struck and we decided to try forming a human chain from the church yard, up the stairs to the staging area on the second floor.  We passed the blocks from person-to-person like an old fashioned bucket brigade.  It took all of us to get the job done, and every person on the team handled every single block.

As we got a rhythm going, we sang.  It was hard work, but it was so satisfying when the last block was neatly stacked where the masons needed it.

It was a living picture of Ephesians 4:16.