How Firm Is Your Foundation?

 “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.  Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock.  But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.” Matthew 7:24-27 NLT

I remember the first time the ocean took me under, I mean really took me under. I was a blushing bride of about six days and my sea-loving husband decided to teach me how to body surf on our honeymoon. He grew up around the ocean, knows how to surf, read the waves, and I swear he’s part fish. (You have to pull him gleefully smiling out of the water, true story.) I grew up in the midwest surrounded by cornfields, cattle and woodsy old barns. I was pretty much a fish out of water. (True story). As the waves came in and crested, he sliced through and rode them with ease as he was carried effortlessly to the shore. The waves did the opposite to me. Once they saw me coming I didn’t know where, when or how to swim and instead of riding the wave I was curled up in its disorienting power, and then body slammed to the ocean floor. Sopping wet, and utterly humbled, I broke the surface of the water desperate for air only to find my new husband……laughing.

Let’s just say my first foray into body surfing didn’t go as planned.

As the afternoon rode on, I tried again, again, and again to learn the ways of water. But when the undertow got to be too much, I had to retreat to dry land to get my bearings. It took time, effort and practice but getting firm footing on a strong foundation will serve you well no matter where the waves take you. Building your house on the rock will not fail you whenever the waves invariably come.

I don’t think I’m the only one who feels like rain, torrents, waves and undertow (aka life) get to be a bit too much for our hearts sometimes. Ya feel me?

The past few months have been a maddening lesson to get my feet on strong soil. After the umpteenth job application was turned down, my husband lost his job and just about everything financially that could come apart did- I found myself feeling much the same as I did after the waves took me out…..done. Just, done. 

But as I wrestled through my feelings, one thing began to surface in the middle of it all, one truth that I couldn’t escape and one thing that didn’t make feel like giving up. If the waves come stronger at us, we need a stronger stronghold in God. 

I’ve caught myself struggling with something over the past few months and maybe you see yourself in this too…..a very real desire to put my feelings over my circumstances and view them as if they are truth. My thoughts go something like: It’s a bad day, I did’t sleep well, so I’m going give in to being a grump. It’s OK to be mean to everyone because I’m feeling like crap. I don’t feel good, so life is just poopiekins. I’m discouraged because nothing is turning out the way I expected. Why does EVERYONE have their life put together and figured out except for me?!? I’ve been there, lived there, and trust me, I don’t want to go back. In the face of the real circumstances we face is a very telling question: What am I going to build my life on as my foundation?

In the swirl of overpowering waves I heard the still small voice of Jesus: “Worship me first, and watch me deal with the waves” Oh Jesus! You are the only foundation that holds! Help us to devote our attention to you, the only place it deserves to be.

I think Matthew had it right when he admonishes us to be wise and build our foundation on what is firm, on what will last, on what is eternal, the rock himself: Jesus Christ.

While there is a very real temptation to build elsewhere, no other foundation holds us when the waves come….and I think it’s God’s grace that they can’t. When we give ourselves to the devotion and focus of anything in place of Jesus, we open ourselves to a foundation that is sure to fail. God wants us to be found standing strong because we are devoted to a life that is built on him.

Every circumstance is an opportunity for us to build, but it is up to us what we do with that decision.  

When it boils down to it, that is where the shift in our construction comes in. Our adoration and our worship are so locked in and loaded that instead of focusing on whatever we face, we focus on Him. His character makes a way and we are found trusting in him to do what only he can do. It might take time, and the swell of the water might prove more powerful than we thought, but reorienting ourselves on the shore will be worth the effort. Then, we move forward into what we are called to do because  we have chosen to remain focused and steadfast in him, and in his love. By lifting him up, we have chosen where our feet stand- on the foundation and that makes us rest, rely and trust in Jesus, and Jesus alone.

He’s the anchor in the storm, the help on the high seas, and our eternal hope. My prayer is that we may all be found with a life that is built on the rock, and on the rock alone.  

You are so loved,

Joy