And it will be said: “Build up, build up, prepare the road! Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.”
ISAIAH 57:14
When the first transcontinental railroad was built, the progress through the Sierra Nevada was excruciatingly slow. The day’s work was often measured in inches as several tunnels were dug through the mountains. During the harsh winter of 1866–1867, workers had to clear several feet of snow to bring supplies to the thousands of men who were drilling and blasting, laying ties and track. There was danger from explosions, cave-ins, and avalanches.
It took four years to breach the Sierra Nevada. Six years after the project was started, the rail lines from the east and west met at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory. One of the inscriptions on the golden spike used in the ceremony read, “May God continue the unity of our country as this railroad unites the two great oceans of the world.”
Building anything takes time, and the bigger and more complex the project is, the more effort and time it will require. In Ephesians, Paul gave us an idea of just how ambitious God is for His church: “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11–13). That sounds like an almost impossible ideal, doesn’t it?
As with any long-term endeavor, we just have to keep taking the next step. In 1 Thessalonians 5:11, we are shown one key task: to “encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” This building up can take many forms: a kind word spoken at the right time; a hot meal cooked during a family’s illness or grief; or a letter to a member of the military serving far from home. The cost may be great or small, but the encouragement can have consequences beyond our lifetime.