Pushing Bricks

Last Updated on May 19, 2020 by admin

When I was a little girl, I would push on bricks. If I saw a brick wall, I would systematically push on each individual brick that I could reach, feeling along all the cracks and bumps, looking for something special and discernible— determined that one of them would, eventually, yield to my pressure and lead to some magic corridor that had been hidden there all along. Beyond the passage would be gold or beauty or some other enchantment.  

And for some reason, despite a 100% failure rate, I never grew impatient that I had yet to unlock the hidden world that I knew with childish certainty was hiding there undisturbed and full of promise behind the bricks.

I was full of confident anticipation.

Fearless.

There was nothing anyone could say to deter me from my quest. I was resolute.

I knew something about a dream that no one else could remember.

I don’t know when I stopped pushing on bricks. One day, a brick was just a brick. It looked strong and unrelenting. It was a wall that could not be penetrated. My eyes could no longer see the magic of a possibility.

And I forgot that I had ever pushed on bricks.

And my innocent mind that used to be allowed to wander so freely somehow got busy and bored—then restless and noisy, and I would find another filler for that space that couldn’t be there.

And I forgot who I was.

And I got lost.   

   And I would have given anything for a path back to the magic—         

the innocence of a dream.

The ability to believe.

When was the last time you looked at a wall and believed you could move it? When was the last time you were the hero in your own story? How many times have you allowed your heart to wonder?

And wander. . . ?

Maybe you need a gentle reminder to quieten your soul, shut out the noise, and imagine a possibility.

Push the Bricks

Let the Holy Spirit take you somewhere you’ve never been–

because you didn’t really believe it could happen.

I pray that you’ll push on a brick—that you will remember a time when you believed you could do anything.

I pray that you will remember who you are,

and who you were created to be.

23 “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.  24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. (Mark 11:23-24)