For Wilshire Baptist Church
For the past week as I’ve worked in my upstairs office, I’ve heard grinding and pounding as concrete foundations are broken and giant slabs are dropped into dump trucks. And behind it all has been the constant drone of heavy equipment.
The noise is coming from Garland’s Central Park a couple of blocks away where an old Air Force Reserve facility is being transformed into a dog park. It’s a modern-day version of the Biblical notion of beating swords into plowshares: where once upon a time, military personnel planned and practiced for invasions and battles, puppies and their owners will frolic in the green grass and relax under the canopy of trees.
It all sounds very “peaceable kingdom” like, but there actually were some heated battles getting us to this day. And from what I hear, some folks still are not happy. Some wanted to keep the buildings for a “makerspace” where entrepreneurs could build and artists could create. Some wanted a skate park. Some wanted combinations of those uses, and some just wanted to leave it vacant because a new purpose would bring traffic.
LeAnn and I walked over yesterday evening to check out the progress and look at schematic maps and photos posted on a sign. We didn’t have “a dog in the fight,” as they say, but we weren’t fond of the vacant buildings surrounded by tall security fences. Judging from the pictures, the site will look great when it is finished.
Change is difficult. Agreeing on the best direction for change is difficult. Acquiescing to someone else’s vision of the best direction for change is difficult. Letting go is difficult.
For the record, while the Bible has two references about beating swords into plowshares, there is another one that advises to beat plowshares back into swords. Swords to plowshares is difficult, too.