Chinking

Bookworm, I am and unashamed. Recently, this rough quote came to mind from a childhood book by Lois Walfrid Johnson:
“Aren’t cabins cold and drafty?” The heroine asked.
Her foil stiffened. “Everybody knows how to chink a cabin so the wind doesn’t blow through.”
For a generation, the refrain was: “Our children are leaving the church in droves.”
It’s because their faith was like a cabin that has been left unchinked. It was never prepared for the harshness of life.
Chinking fills the empty spaces between the logs of a cabin. Chinking in our lives fills the empty space in our lives. Whatever takes up our empty time is our chinking. It either insulates us from the stressors of life and the suffering they bring, or it leaves us vulnerable to the cold.
Our culture squanders free time on video games, movies, mindless books, and repetitive (and lewd) popular songs. We have been discipled to gravitate to whatever feels good, which often dulls the senses and muzzles our drive for God. And then we meekly surrender free reign over our hearts and minds to these “harmless” amusements. They are the holes in our faith.
We are chinking with fluff, and the wind is whipping through.
In a heart that is God’s – His songs should be the soundtrack. In time that is God’s (and it all is, by the way) – His Spirit should be the driving motive. In a mind that is God’s – His stories and teaching should be at the frontlines. And in a life that is God’s – His truth should prevail over all in power.
It is time to chink the gaps with faith not fluff.

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