Why Build | We Must Build an Ark

Last Updated: March 17, 2025

It is necessary that families who become aware of the broken government education system leave that system behind. Those families enter education independence by first recognizing what they cannot accept. They step away from structures that feel misaligned or unsustainable. But departure alone does not automatically reconstruct truth-aligned, stable structures.

Opting out does create space. It does provide relief. It does preserve something precious within a single household. Yet, by itself, simply opting out does not address the problems in our education culture now or for future generations. Without building something new, each family in each generation starts from scratch.

If education independence is to grow and endure, the environment must be built, and what has been built must be expanded to make room for more families. We should join in the activity and be builders because building is part of our design, part of our responsibility, and part of our generational hope.

I. Building Is Part of Our Human Design

Building is not merely strategic. It is creative work that bears resemblance to the work of our Maker.

Scripture presents God Himself as a builder. He forms light from darkness. He separates and orders. He names. He establishes boundaries. He plants a garden. Throughout redemptive history, He instructs His people to construct: an ark, a tabernacle, a temple. Creation itself unfolds with structure and intentionality. The Creator does not act chaotically. He brings order, beauty, and coherence.

Before the fall, before cultural corruption, before external threats, there was a garden; and in that garden, humanity was given work.

Genesis 2:15 tells us that the Lord God placed man in the garden “to dress it and to keep it.” Cultivation and keeping were not punishments introduced after the fall. They were part of humanity’s original design. The first original human vocation was the construction of goodness and beauty.

Building, in this sense, precedes crisis and is a necessary good. It is not something we do only when there is a problem. It is something we were made to do from the beginning.

How Are We “Builders?”

To be made in His image includes reflecting that ordering work. Image bearing is not merely rational or relational. It is vocational. Humanity was created to cultivate what is given, to bring fruitfulness where there might otherwise be wilderness. In this sense, the pinnacle of God’s building was not a structure, but a people who reflect His character and ordering work. The Great Builder built builders in His own image.

Rejection of building is therefore a rejection of something fundamental to human design. The opposite of building is not always destruction. More often, people quietly abandon the work. Building requires action. Scripture warns that “faith without works is dead.” Independent education lives within intentionally constructed, hospitable environments.

At the family level, we are shaping humans. At the community level, we are building paradigms, collaborative structures, and culture itself.

We were made to cultivate, to order, and to build.

II. Building Is Part of Our Responsibility

If building is part of our design, it is also part of our responsibility, even when conditions are not ideal.

Jeremiah 29 records God’s instruction to His people after they had been carried away into exile. Their city had fallen. Their temple was gone. They were living under foreign rule.

In that setting, God did not command withdrawal or revolt. He commanded construction.

“Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters… that ye may be increased there, and not diminished.” (Jeremiah 29:5–6 KJV)

Houses imply stability. Gardens imply duration. Planting assumes seasons. Marriage and children assume generations. This is not the language of short-term survival. It is the language of rootedness.

The instruction continues:

“And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.” (Jeremiah 29:7 KJV)

Their well-being was tied to the well-being of the place where they lived. They were told to build constructively within imperfect conditions.

For those concerned with education independence, the implication is clear. We do not build only when circumstances are favorable. We build because we exist. We build because our children exist. We build because our peace is bound up with the peace of the place where we live.

Builders plant even when harvest will take time. Builders increase rather than diminish. Builders seek the peace of the city and pray unto the Lord for it.

III. Building Is Part of Our Generational Hope

Every generation builds something, whether for good or for evil. We cannot escape the responsibility of shaping what comes next, because even our unintentional choices sow seeds that will bear a harvest.

Virtuous builders think beyond themselves.

John Adams wrote in 1780:

“I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain.”

Adams understood something essential about building. One generation labors so that the next may add a layer and widen the horizon of freedom. His study of politics and war was not an end in itself. It was foundation laying. He accepted the burden so that his sons could inherit stability, and his grandchildren could inherit flourishing.

Building is rarely glamorous. Those who pour foundations do not always enjoy the finished structure. Yet without foundations, there is no structure at all.

This is how culture is formed. It is layered. It is cumulative. What is protected in one generation becomes the starting point for the next. What is neglected diminishes.

Education is inseparable from this generational logic. We are not merely shaping the present experience of our own households. We are shaping inheritance. Ideas, habits, and structures outlive individuals. What we build now will either strengthen or weaken the options available to those who follow us.

Opting out may protect one family. Building creates conditions that can be handed down.

Builders accept that they may not enjoy the full benefit of their labor. They act in hope. They plan for continuity. They widen the horizon for those who come after them.

We should be builders because we are a people who believe the future is worth preparing for.

IV. Why We Hesitate to Build

If building is creational, responsible, and generational, why do we resist it?

First, many hesitate because life already feels full. Families are tired. The cultural ground feels unstable. Building beyond the walls of one household can sound like one more burden added to an already heavy load. It is understandable to think this is not the right season.

However, building is not necessarily an addition. It is direction. We are already expending energy. We are already shaping our children. We are already participating in culture. The question is not whether we will build something. It is whether what we build will be intentional and durable. Builders rarely work under perfect skies. Waiting for ideal conditions often means waiting forever.

Second, others hesitate because building is slow. It does not produce immediate results, especially when one is building with heavy, enduring materials rather than light and temporary ones. Work meant to last cannot be assembled quickly. Foundations take time.

Third, for some, there is a theological hesitation. If this world is not our ultimate home, why invest in constructing anything lasting here? Yet pilgrimage does not cancel responsibility. Faithful presence is not the same as permanence. To love our neighbors and steward what has been entrusted to us is not a denial of heaven. It is obedience on the way to it.

The alternative to building is not rest. It is stress and vulnerability, both for our present generation and for those who follow. What is not intentionally strengthened becomes fragile.

We should be builders because building is part of our design, part of our responsibility, and part of our generational hope.

Looking Ahead

In the last installment, we asked why this work requires a “we.” We concluded that education independence cannot endure in isolation. It requires shared effort and continuity.

In this chapter, we have asked why a “we” must build. If education independence is to remain durable and generational, it will require intentional construction.

That brings us to the next question. If we must build, what kind of structure is needed? Why an “ark?”