The Purpose of a Wall

    
Let me file this disclaimer before we get started, today's message is not meant to be a political stance message. If it lends itself to anyone in a political sense then that is yours to internalize. Okay, now that we have that established let's get on with the purpose of a wall.
     The intent of a wall is to provide a barrier between two things. For a house that's a good thing, but even there without windows and doors we would be living inside a box. For practical purposes walls serve both practical and beneficial functions, yet in many instances a wall is seen as something that limits us or keeps us from reaching our purpose in life. How many times have you experienced a mental block that just won't allow you to think through a problem or challenge? What about when you run into a block wall in an alley, we would say that you have hit a dead end and turning around to head in the other direction is the only way to continue moving. So we have just established that a wall can be mental or physical and although walls do provide us with a certain amount of safety from the elements of nature, they can also be a hindrance to going beyond where we currently reside. Walls can definitely be a deterrent, yet I want to propose to you that we don't need to let walls be a negative force in our lives, but instead turn a wall into a creative opportunity to overcome and surpass what was intended to stop you in your tracks.
     A wall is just one type of barrier that hinders us from moving forward. We just recently celebrated Columbus Day in the United States, a day set aside to recognize the significance of the accomplishment Christopher Columbus made back in 1492. To the majority of people of that era, the Atlantic Ocean was just as much a wall as the brick and mortar types that we associate with being a wall today. Either when you reached the horizon you were going to just drop off the flat world they were living in, or since you couldn't see anything else out there, the logic was that nothing else must exist beyond there. To possess the ability to think outside the box, pun intended, in the manner that Columbus did is exactly what I'm talking about when it comes to overcoming a barrier, i.e. a wall. Columbus didn't allow what appeared to most as a dead end to stop him from dreaming, planning, studying, and eventually conquering what others before him had dared not even propose. Columbus took what was meant to be a stop sign and turned it into a challenge to overcome, go across, and conquer!
      When I see a wall, I don't want to think dead end, instead I want to think how can I go around, under, over, or through this wall that is deterring my progress! Too many times we see a wall and we instantly see a stop sign, why, because we only see walls as a blockade. What if we looked at a wall and saw it as an opportunity? What if walls were actually created so you would have to stop only momentarily while you figured out a way to bust through them to where you needed to go? Wouldn't that change the image of a wall? Instead of us looking at a wall as a bad thing we would actually see it as an opportunity. Not a stopping point, but instead a creative point to find an answer, to create a solution, and to scale our wall.
       I imagine that when man first devised a wall whether it was made of wood or rock, he realized pretty quick that he had to have a window to see what was outside. I also guess that the need for more than one door entered his thoughts pretty quick, so that there would always be an alternate route for an escape or exit. Windows and doors were created as a means to get around walls. We cannot allow a wall to be something that limits us or hinders our progress, but instead walls should only prod us to think of ways to surmount that thing that lies in our path towards progress. Keep in mind walls without doors create boxes, we do not want to ever convince ourselves that we can't go beyond that wall that is in front of us.
      It's time to bring this message to an end. As I was studying and seeking guidance for today's message the image of a mountain continuously came to the forefront of my attention. In the seventeenth chapter of the gospel of Matthew Jesus' disciples ask him why they are unable to remove a demon from a young man. Jesus' reply is a fitting scripture to conclude today's thought. "You don't have enough faith," Jesus told them. "I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it would move. Nothing would be impossible." Matthew 17:20. When we are faced with walls, mountains, or whatever stands in front of us we must believe in the depths of our hearts, minds, souls, and bodies that we can and we will go around, go over, go under, or go through it regardless of how insurmountable it may appear. We can and we will, if only we believe!
Coach Carter