Beware, the Incremental Fade…

I couldn’t tell you how I found the first article if my life depended on it. Those Internet rabbit chases can sneak up on a person. A belle can be looking up a recipe one minute and watching video of a water skiing squirrel the next. Don’t act like you haven’t done it. I may have been born at night, but it wasn’t last night.

As I was saying, my curious self was led from one site to the next as my eyes took in images of abandoned church buildings strewn all across our planet. The more I clicked, the more somber I became. As sad as it was to see those glorious cathedrals standing tomb silent as plaster cracked and fell from their elaborately carved architecture, the sagging walls of country churches being pulled to their foundations with snaking vines caught in my heart just as much or more. As I studied the broken down pulpit where someone once read holy words, I thought I might cry.

See, I don’t know the stories behind all of those abandoned churches but I can’t help thinking about when the decision was made to close the doors. I wonder if the people left all at once or if they moved away slowly, maybe from wars, economic troubles or natural disasters. Perhaps the crowds dwindled almost imperceptibly, until it seemed easier to walk away than it did to maintain those sacred structures.

I see a stirring charge here for all of us and I’m not talking about material sanctuaries anymore. The Apostle Paul once asked, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you received from God?”

It’s a staggering thought to consider that we, as believers, house the very Presence of God. The Word tells us the Holy Voice that once woke us from the dead, is continuing to call us to Him for life-giving relationship. To neglect to listen is the first step in abandoning the sanctuary. Beware the incremental fade that threatens our temples.