We Didn’t Build It Big Enough

Monday Morning Mumbling

Good morning and happy Monday! These posts always start with me saying that one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day. Usually I discover this is correct; hopefully you will too. Here’s the quote:

“I came here as a young man and dreamed of building a great university in honor of Our Lady. But I built it too small, and she had to burn it to the ground to make the point. So, tomorrow, as soon as the bricks cool, we will rebuild it, bigger and better than ever.”

Father Edward Sorin, April 1879

As you may know, Father Sorin was a Catholic priest who founded a small school in a log cabin in rural Indiana in 1842. He dedicated his life to building this into a university; he spent 37 years creating a six-story main building, a dome with a statute of Mary on top, and a thriving community. It consumed him, and it was a great success. At age 65, he should have been able to look proudly upon his accomplishments and the good he had done for so many.

But in April of 1879, a fire consumed the main building, burning it completely to the ground. I have often thought about Father Sorin in this moment. I wonder how shaken his faith must have been. The thought certainly must have crossed his mind: this was a mistake; this task is impossible. He certainly had to consider standing back and letting the younger students and administrators decide the future of the school. Four decades of work was smoldering on the ground in front of him; a more crushing visual representation of adversity could scarcely exist.

Father Sorin did not hesitate. He strode into the wreckage of everything he had built, and the message – the vision – he gave to those around him was this: it was not a failure. It was not impossible. This wreckage of a project was not the end. The takeaway was: we didn’t build it big enough. We didn’t build it big enough.

Time to get back to work.

Wow.

Usually with these posts, I put a bit of my own spin on the quote. I try to relate it to my life, or to common issues that some of us may share. But this story, for me, stands on its own. Adversity can be daunting. It can be tempting to give up, or to change course – to try to avoid the roadblocks that stand in our way. But it can also be viewed as an opportunity, a chance to dream even bigger. For Father Sorin, it was not a push downward, but a push upward and onward. Right on the rubble where all his efforts lay in ruins, he set out to build his dream even bigger. It was also an opportunity to cover the dome in gold. This is how that very spot – the site of his most crushing defeat – looks today:

So my challenge to myself this week is to view adversity less as a problem, and more as an opportunity. If my efforts this week crumble, perhaps I didn’t build them big enough.

Have a great week everybody.