Superbowl Sunday was special this year.  I woke up with a smile on my face and felt like a kid on Christmas day.  I couldn’t wait to get to church to show off my Green Bay shirt and get harassed by Steelers fans who unknowingly awaited glorious defeat by my Packers.  It was a beautiful day.

So to say I was a bit distracted in church is somewhat of an understatement.  My attention was flipping between the pastor’s sermon and wondering how my team was prepping for the big game.  I love God more than anything, but football is pretty high on my list as well.

As the pastor preached, my mind was brought back to the sanctuary when he started talking about Noah (yeah, the guy with the floating circus).  He wondered aloud what Noah must have gone through while building the ark.  In the 120 years it took him to complete the world’s first nautical transport (in the middle of the desert, no less) he must have put up with some serious mocking from the town folk.

To be fair, I probably would’ve thought he was a nut job too.  I mean, building a boat when you’re not close to a sea and talking about a flood when the forecast is sunny with no chance of precipitation for 120 years – yeah, this guy was off his rocker… or whatever they used to sit on back then.

But despite the ceaseless mocking and consistently sunny forecast, Noah kept building.

I pondered this concept for a while.  There was no rain, just a command.  There was no model to follow, just a heavenly blueprint.  There was no guarantee the rain would come, just belief.  Bottom line, in the face of adversity, mockery, doubt, and an overextended dry season, Noah kept doing what he knew to do – building and believing.

And while quite some time has passed since the world’s first cruise line took sail, the lesson is still very much relevant.

Some might think this story is simply about obedience – of course it is.  But if you look deeper, it’s about someone who kept building and believing even when it was beyond him to understand the purpose of his handiwork.  How is someone supposed to understand rain when they’ve only seen sunshine?  Why would someone think a floating zoo is a good idea, like, ever?  None of it made sense yet he kept plugging away year after year, doubt after doubt, boat on dry land after boat on dry land.

Then, somewhere between hearing about Noah and thinking about how cute I look in Packer green, something clicked – I’m Noah, you’re Noah, we’re all Noah.  God has given each of us purpose and planted dreams in our hearts, but it’s up to us if we’re going to follow through on that mission or hang out with the naysayers.

The good/bad news is that sometimes you’re going to have to get a little crazy to do what’s right and fulfill your purpose.  There are times when you’ll have to stare down the mockers and fight their doubt as well as your own.  I’m sure even Noah questioned his actions (and God) a time or two in those building years.  There’s no way he didn’t have at least one bad day where he wanted to put down his tools for good and go tanning.

Everyone has days like that where they start questioning even their best efforts, but the point is that he kept building and pushing through until completion.  End result: he saved himself, his family, two of every animal on this planet, and proved to be the greatest example of obedience this world has ever known.  Not too bad for the village crazy.

It’s not easy building an ark in a dry land.  It’s sometimes difficult to assemble a boat when there’s little to no water in sight.  None of your efforts seem to make sense and it’s difficult to push through blind obedience when you’re battling doubt and mockery.  Trust me, I’ve been there.

To prove it, here’s a quick recap of my resume: went to bible college, got a degree in theology, worked at bible college, laid off, went to grad school, interned at major news network, got a degree in journalism, working at bible college again.  I went full circle when instead I wanted to walk a straight line.

In the middle of all of this, people from both worlds questioned my life path.  Some well-meaning ministers/parishioners asked me if I was walking away from the church when I first entered journalism (um, no).  Meanwhile, some unbelieving journalists asked me (more out of pure curiosity) how and why I made the jump from the Dead Sea to the beat.  Here’s my answer to all of you: I was told to build so I just kept building.

I still have no idea why I went to bible college before going into journalism.  I don’t know if I was just a 17-year-old kid without much career guidance who took the safe path or if God had a bigger purpose for me by walking this unconventional path.  More than likely it’s door number two.  I’m believing it’s door number two.

To be completely honest (not that I haven’t been up to this point), I have days at my part-time, bible college, semi-journalistic related job where I just don’t get it.  I question why, with all the building I’ve done, that I’m back in the place I worked so hard to leave.  It’s not a bad place, it’s just that I figured by now I’d be charting different waters.  Instead, I’m still here building believing one day I’ll set sail on my ocean of promise.

You may be in the middle of building your own ark – tools and fuzzy blueprints in hand – not really knowing the point of your hard labor.  But whether you’re at the stage of putting on the finishing touches or barely rolling out the blueprints, trust in God, believe in yourself, and keep on building because one day soon you’ll be on a boat.