By Shannon Marhall

One of the great old castles of Ireland came to a sudden and bizarre end. The ancient home of the Castlereagh family fell into decay and the family no longer lived in it. As the castle sat there uninhabited, it fell into the hands of scavengers. When a peasant wanted to build something, the ready made stones of the castle would be used for their various building projects. One day the only surviving heir of the Castlereagh family, Lord Londonderry, visited his castle. When he saw the scavenged state of his beloved ancestral home, he determined to put an end to the robbing of his beloved home.

Lord Londonderry called his agent and gave him the orders and assignment to build a protective wall around the Castle of Castlereagh. He gave the orders that the wall was to be six feet tall so this would keep out the trespassers. Lord Londonderry left while the wall was being built. He returned four years later. Upon his return he was surprised to see that his beloved castle was gone, completely disappeared with nothing left. But what Lord Londonderry did see was a huge wall enclosing the empty space of where the castle formerly was.

As you could image the Lord was upset and demanded an explanation from his agent. He wanted to know why his orders were not carried out. But the agent insisted that he follow the Lord’s orders to the letter. The Lord asked, “but where is the castle?” The agent said, “I built the wall with it.” “Why go for miles to hunt stones when the finest stones in Ireland were right beside me.”  Lord Londonderry had his wall but lost his castle to have it. Without the castle the wall meant nothing. What good is building a wall of protection if we have to destroy the very thing the wall was intended to protect? May we not let anything tear down our beloved castle to build a wall. “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.” ( Ephesians 6: 10)