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Last weekend I was at the beach with my husband and my two boys. My two-year-old and I were digging a hole, trying to dig it deep enough that water would come in on its own. Things were going fairly well until my two-year-old, trying to speed up the process, started filling his bucket with lake water and dumping it into the hole, pushing extra sand into the hole in the process. I continued scooping sand out but each time he came to look at what I was doing, he inevitably pushed more sand in. Even though the sand was easy to move, it couldn't hold up. Eventually we abandoned our efforts for something less frustrating!
The Bible tells a story about building with sand. You might have heard it before. It’s a short passage, found in Matthew 7:24 - 27. Jesus says, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
When we were at the beach, I was reminded firsthand how frustrating it is to build with sand. It’s not very stable. As soon as my toddler got too close or dumped water in, the integrity of the sand was gone. In this short story, Jesus compares the way we live our lives as building on the rock or in the sand. We all build our lives on something. When life is good, a weak foundation isn’t so noticeable. But when life doesn’t go our way, when we are stressed, hurt, discouraged, or in despair, our foundation really matters. In Matthew 7, Jesus says that if we hear His words AND live them out, that our foundation will not crumble. Note that he doesn’t say that if we follow Him, we won’t experience the rain, the flood, and the winds. No. They will inevitably come, but if our foundation is built correctly, we will not be shaken.
This past summer, friends of mine had to redo the foundation of their home – it was a big job but an important one if they wanted their house to remain strong and safe. Just like with our physical homes, we need to constantly examine the state of the foundation on which we build our life. If there are cracks in your foundation – things such as greed, pride, resentment, or anger – they will continue getting bigger unless we look to God to help mend them. A strong foundation requires us to look to Jesus in every area of our lives – not just the areas where it’s convenient or comfortable. I can tell you firsthand that my relationship with Jesus and having that strong foundation in place is absolutely vital in every area of my life – in my marriage, my parenting, my job, my friendships, my finances, my health, my emotions…you get the idea! When I experience trouble in any of those areas, I can be sure that despite how heavy the storm is, my foundation will remain intact, because my hope is found in Jesus alone and I know that when the challenges and disappointments of life come, He will never change and will never let me down. If my hope is placed in anything else, at some point, it will let me down.
So, I challenge you to consider: what does the foundation of your life look like? Is your foundation feeling shaky? Or maybe you feel like it’s already fallen. You can rebuild it and strengthen it by doing what Jesus said in Matthew 7 - hearing God’s words and then putting them into practice. As you do this, you will find your foundation becomes stronger and when life hits hard, you’ll be standing on a rock instead of sinking in the sand.