Project 02 Watchtower story
For: The Institute of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt.
Although I was really joking during the conference call about making an architectural piece for the final project, the idea stood me by and I came to design a watchtower. For the making of this tower, I am inspired by the life and story of Habbakuk, that I will shortly retell below (1):
Habakkuk lived 600 years before Christ in Judea, and he was a farmer. His land was destroyed by the armies of Nebukadnezar. His farm was burned, his family broken. Habakkuk calls to God: ‘how long do I have to cry out for help before you listen?‘ (Habakkuk 1:2).
Habakkuk’s life has fallen apart and his repons was to firing all his questions straight to God. He wrote a massive complaint. Then Habakkuk waited. ‘I’ll climb to the lookout tower and scan the horizon. I’ll wait to see what God says, how he’ll answer my complaint’ (Habakkuk 2:1). In his watchtower he takes distance, he waits, staring to the world. He listens, waits on what God will say. ‘But oh! God is in his holy Temple! Quiet everyone—a holy silence. Listen!’ (Habakkuk 2: 20). And then God revealed Himself, on His time. He was there, and He spoke: ‘but the person in right standing before God through loyal and steady believing is fully alive, really alive’ (Habakkuk 2: 4).
The visualisation that I’ve made represents Habakkuk standing on a watchtower, waiting for the anointed One. The watchtower powerfully symbolizes a place where we can meet God. It is a symbol for a quiet, secluded place, that Jesus describes in Matthew 6:6 as the ‘inner room’: ‘Go into your inner room and shut the door, pray to your Father who sees you in secret’. In a watchtower you can take distance, you walk away from the earth and start knocking on heaven’s door. It’s the entering place where you can meet with God. It’s the place where heaven meets earth, and where God’s kingdom will be born. It’s crucial for our daily Christian life to go to a watchtower for silent worship and to let our vision be restored and to find rest.
From personal experience I know that waiting is hard to do. It is a place where you loose control and where your goals in life can become fuzzy. It is a place where your mind can go wandering and where your heart sighs. However, it is also the place where you build faith and trust and where you learn true intimicy with God. And it is true that God will not disappoint us in our waiting; He will always show up! The end result may not always be what we have anticipated, but it will be God given. We have the promise in Jesus and a father who sees us!
(1) The passages from Habakkuk are from: Eugene Peterson, The Message.
I have seen this rendering on my screen since you put it up and I wondered what it was. Now I see! Yes it is a place where we can retreat to find our balance once more, as we wait for God to reveal Himself in our midst. Something I noticed is the height of the tower, and that it is a visible place for others to observe. Habbakuk could not go there, nor can we, without others knowing that we are up there alone.
This happens to me often. I am the type of person who needs to find times with the Lord or even only to think and rest. (here I am now at 3:00 in the morning doing my blogging and thinking) When I retreat, the people around me tend to notice that I have become quiet, or am not around as much as usual. It is like sitting in a high tower. They know where I am, and I know they are there watching. Sometimes when I return, there are looks to me wondering what I have heard from the Lord. It makes me smile, because I wonder the same from them.
The tower is interesting to look at.
ss63
August 9, 2008 at 9:21 am