To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here
They’re called “nail houses,” and they’re appearing all over China.
Just like a nail that needs to be knocked down or extracted from a board before it can be used in construction, nail houses stick out in places where real estate developers want to wrap up a major project. But a homeowner has balked.
For several decades, China has been transforming decaying urban landscapes into new roads, skyscrapers, and retail centers.
Property owners who refuse to sell their houses have to be tough as nails to stand up to government-endorsed developers. In years past, those who happened to live in the path of progress had little recourse. If the government approved a construction project, officials either paid off the homeowners or roughed them up. Either way, the bulldozers always came.
Then, in 2007, the National People’s Congress passed an historic law supporting homeowners’ rights. Now there are more and more “dingzihou” (which literally translates as “nail households”), like the three-story dwelling in the topmost picture above from the Henan Province.
The highway is completed, but nobody’s going anywhere – not until the owner’s grievances are satisfactorily addressed.
The second image, which was captured just last May, shows the nation’s most celebrated nail house. Chen Tianming, who is 42, refuses to vacate the property once owned by his grandparents on the outskirts of Xingyi City. He just keeps building straight up. His “house” is now a 10-storey pyramid.
The proprietors of nail houses have become Chinese folk heroes.
Through courage and audacity, simple homeowners have fueled an entire population’s hope that the Power People – corrupt politicians who are assumed to be in the pockets of wealthy developers – can’t just show up and eliminate an entire township because a few people want to build a golf course.
Admittedly, it’s a dangerous game. Authorities in certain provinces have been known to turn the other way when hired thugs step in to “address the obstacles.”
But we need to acknowledge that there can be another factor in play:
Sometimes the homeowners are just plain stubborn.
Because he refuses to accept a buyout at any price, Chen Tianming gets to stay in his 10-storey pyramid house. But that means everyone else in the neighborhood misses out on the municipal park and shopping center that were planned for that site. Local authorities recently decided to cancel the whole development.
Chen is technically in the right. And there’s a lot to admire about standing up to a repressive government.
But needing to be right, and letting everybody know it, can sometimes be oh-so-wrong. The alternative is to be humble and attend to the needs of others. It’s essentially impossible to do both at the same time.
How about you? Are you currently living in a nail house? Have you become an obstacle on the road to healthy change?
All too often our personal “stands” turn out to be mere posturing on issues that have nothing to do with advancing God’s kingdom. We want to be right. We want to win. When push comes to shove, we wouldn’t be entirely unhappy if we ended up shutting down everybody else in order to get our own way.
Church consultant Thom Rainier has seen it all. He comes across the usual hot button congregational issues, such as disagreements over the ideal temperature in the sanctuary, the right color of carpeting, and the most God-honoring order of worship.
Then there are the issues that defy imagination.
One congregation fought over which picture of Jesus to hang in the foyer (Rainier playfully asked who had snapped the pictures). An argument ensued in another church when it was discovered that the budget was off by ten cents. The tension was finally resolved when someone contributed a dime. At another congregation, a handful of members angrily left when the committee preparing the Sunday morning coffee switched to a stronger blend. At still another place there was a battle concerning deviled eggs: Should such Satanic items be allowed at a church potluck?
Somewhere along the line, a great many people began to believe it’s important to attend the Church that is Right About Everything.
All too often, that’s the impression that sticks with outsiders when they check out local worship options.
Enough.
God calls us to establish a legacy of being for things that really matter, not merely against things that happen to irk us. As Paul explained to the young Christians of ancient Corinth, God had given him “the authority to build you up, not tear you down” (2 Corinthians 13:10).
In that spirit, have you considered the possibility that your spouse or partner might be right, but you’re too stubborn to admit it?
Have you considered the possibility that there’s a better way to frame the problem you’re working on right now, and you just can’t see it?
Have you considered the possibility that you’re off the mark this time, even though you pride yourself on never getting things wrong?
Don’t end up being that stubborn nail.
It may take bravery to take a stand.
But it requires even more courage to humbly grasp that being “right” on a non-essential issue is less important than finding ways to bless others.