PRAY! WRITE! WORKS!
Today, I am inspired:
by St. Louis architecture.
My Three Words for this week are: No Way Out.
I did it! I’m back on the Tuesday track. Let’s get into this week’s My Three Words.
As you know, last week I was in the city along Union Avenue. We looked at the ‘Restoration in Progress’ sign in Forest Park and how it spoke to me as an answer for a prayer I’d released a short time before. I also grabbed a few amateur photographer snapshots to share in the coming weeks.
One of my favorite things about St. Louis is the architecture. St. Louis began in 1764 as a French fur-trading post featuring poteaux-en-terre (vertical log) construction. As the “Gateway to the West” expanded in the 19th century, wealth generated by the river trade led to an explosion of Victorian, Romanesque, and Italianate architecture.
St. Louis’s iconic red brick architecture stems from the Great Fire of 1849, which forced a citywide ban on wood construction. The city sits atop a massive, high-quality clay deposit known as the Cheltenham Syncline. This vast natural resource fueled the city’s massive 19th-century brickmaking industry.
Today, I’m sharing this gem that you see in the photo above. It sits off Union Avenue across from the beautiful Cabanne branch of the St. Louis Public Library. This dilapidated building is an eyesore, yes; yet it evokes,in my imagination, a past glory filled with families, laughter, celebrations, and community that raises its identity out the mud.
But, for a moment, I want you to turn your attention to the street sign that sits in front of it. Surrounded by high grass, overgrown and unkempt lawns. ‘No outlet’ it reads. Do you feel that! If you turn down this street, you’re stuck. You can’t go through. You would have to make a tight turn in the street or a drive way to exit. A heavy, claustrophobic sensation of No Way Out.
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According to ludwig.guru, No Way Out is a
‘phrase used to express that there is no solution to a problem or no escape from a difficult situation.’
Now, go back up to the part where it says St. Louis’s iconic red bricks come from its local natural landscape. As a first year gardener here, I can attest. The soil is more clay than dirt. What does that remind you of?
Exodus 5:18 MSG
But Pharaoh said, “Lazy! That’s what you are! Lazy! That’s why you whine, ‘Let us go so we can worship God.’ Well then, go — go back to work. Nobody’s going to give you straw, and at the end of the day you better bring in your full quota of bricks.”
What do you do when there is No Way Out? What do you do when life hands you a ‘make bricks without straw’ experience? How do you find joy and community in a place that offers no escape from a difficult situation? How do you serve under a leadership that belittles your work ethic, then turns around and creates 50–11 OSHA violations in response to your request for supplies to do your job?!
Ok, let me calm down. I had a moment. About these bricks though. They outlast the people that commissioned the work. They outlive the bricklayers who built that beautiful piece of masonry. They survive, in structure, even those that once called those walls home.
You may be in a No Way Out predicament and there is ‘no one to bring you any straw.’
I hope that you have a prayer life. This week’s My Three Words doesn’t have a tidy ending. It doesn’t have 5-steps to get back out of the No Way Out route you’re on. No. This time you have to be still and know. Just like the COI in Egypt, He hears you.
Now, hold your hands out while I pass you some clay. We’re making bricks without straw together. Right now, there’s No Way Out. But, we know the end. Keep your shoes laced. We’ll be on our Way Out soon enough.
Here’s your Song of the Week: Tye Tribbett’s ‘Work It Out’
This song was on loop 7 years ago as I traveled back and forth between Mississippi, Tennessee, and Missouri. It saw my anxiety spike at another move, my tears fall in grief, and my faith rise with signs and wonders. I hope you hear a message in it for your own ‘bricks without straw’ experience you may be facing.
Groove and sip, my people.
Pray! Write! Works!
I’ll talk to you next Tuesday.
Be well,
Mardale, Bamboo Boss Lady
