This one has an intro embedded. I pulled from a BBC show and the rabbit hole of etymology…and a bumper sticker too. The theme is construction, but not necessarily the annoying road repair kind. Check out this post from June 21, 2023.

“👟 RSD 1149 ✅ Verse: “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.” — Romans 14:19 ☮️ (NIV)

English Standard Version translation is, “So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.” The Message has, “So let’s agree to use all our energy in getting along with each other. Help others with encouraging words.” The Christian Standard Bible uses the language, “So then, we must pursue what promotes peace and what builds up one another.”

The first thing I noticed in this verse (well, I guess the second thing cause I’m always looking for an excuse to hippie ✌🏻🌞🌻 out), was the word “edification.” That word isn’t in my regular vocabulary, BUT I recognized it as something I knew because it sounded like “edifice.” Y’all, I committed that one to memory because of an episode of “Call the Midwife.” It’s a BBC series that airs on PBS (it’s about a group of nurses (some are nuns) in 1960s London who both deliver babies and help the sick and dying of their community…stay with me). There’s this one episode where one of the nurses is leading a group of boys (the English version of Boy Scouts) in making an igloo after a major snowstorm in London; the constable shouts at them to “evacuate that treacherous edifice” because he figured that the structural integrity of an igloo fashioned by nine year-olds left a little bit to be desired (plus, this guy is a stickler for the rules). This show is like “This Is Us” in the heartwarming category (without the frequent avalanches of emotional intensity)—10/10 would recommend. BUT, I recognized “edifice” in “edification” because of that igloo—you live in an edifice, so that general root must be about a building…or just building. Y’all already know what I did next (what can I say? I’m a sucker for etymology and deeper meaning).

From Google (Oxford and etymonline), both edification and edifice come from the Latin word aedificationem meaning, “construction, the process of building” or “a building.” BUT, as things evolved, the Late Latin began using its terminology as a past participle to mean “spiritual improvement.” Today, edification means “the instruction or improvement of a person morally or intellectually.” Edifice. Building. There’s the old bumper sticker/“Thought of the Day” book joke of “Why is it called a building if it’s already built?” A real knee-slapper, I know. The joke’s terrible (like paper…I’ll wait for you on that one…and, now y’all know what my students go through every day), but, as I tell my students, sometimes things that are simple, a little cheesy, silly are “just dumb enough to work.” That joke, for instance. “Why is it called a building if it’s already built?” My answer: it isn’t. No, I don’t mean renovations.

Language has developed into more words to describe our shared journeys and ways to mean things as the centuries have turned over, but older languages had to get to the point a lot quicker. So, there would have to be deeper meaning in fewer words. One of my favorite Latin quotes is “Cor ad cor loquitur;” it *pretty much” translates to, “the heart speaks to the heart,” but also means “truth speaks to truth” (e.g. we would say “the heart of the matter” or reference the heart as the truth within someone). Yeah, a lot meaning in a few words.

A building isn’t ever finished being built because it’s not really the bricks and mortar. The world building isn’t Latin (it’s Germanic), but, interestingly enough one of its used meanings is “to make stronger or more intense.” You build up a wall that’s already there to make it able to weather the next storm and to improve the insulation (you know, keeping the important stuff inside safe). You build up a person so they are better able weather the next storm and to keep the important stuff inside safe (you know, the heart). At this point, you’re going, “Yeah, I get the metaphor, but a building is what I go to to buy an avocado or to order a twentieth copy of my high school transcript.” Bricks and mortar. But, the only reason we ever put that pile of bricks there is so people have a place to gather (for whatever reason). Without usage, a building is just a structure. A building has life within it. A building is never the same from one day to the next. It’s called a building because it’s never actually finished. Even when physical buildings are abandoned and torn down, they serve as time capsules and are etched in memory. The building becomes part of all who have gathered there.

Building up people isn’t just weights at the gym—you know, their “bricks and mortar.” Building up people means making sure there’s life within the edifice that is every human body. Building up people means knowing that, just as the physical buildings are part of everyone who gathers there, so are the interactions between souls. It’s a common thing in movies and literature to say that people carry pieces of everyone they’ve ever met, but it’s common because it’s true. The Message translation puts it simply: we are “to use all our energy in getting along with each other” and to “[h]elp others with encouraging words.” Build up people. Build them up to weather storms. Build them up to stay warm inside. Build them up to have strength of heart. Build them up so that the life inside will continue to grow. Build people up alongside other people. Hey, I did 4 miles today because my friend was running alongside me. Build up your friends; build up your coworkers; build up your community; build up the church body. By building up others and building with others, you’re also building yourself: in strength of character, compassion, and love. Strong buildings last, and, I’m guessing, it takes many to make the city blocks that will one day stand together on streets of gold. You know what I mean by city blocks, right? Buildings are never finished. Building is never finished.

Let me leave you with this quote from Sister Monica Joan (from Call the Midwife), “The hands of the Almighty are so often to be found at the end of our own arms.””