I love my house. I really do. It’s got plenty of space for
all of my clutter and square feet upon square feet for my dogs to roughhouse.
It sits on a hill in a pretty neighborhood. The neighborhood is still being
developed and you can affirm this fact by the sounds of Mack trucks and their
diesel engines struggling to drive up that big first hill at 6am on a Saturday
morning. But I love my house because it is a safe haven for me. A Place of
comfort. A shelter in a storm. I trust that when those winds blow that the
engineering that was put into the construction of the house will stand tried
and true. And it does.
How did
the construction crew know where to build this house? How did they know that
this land was good and solid? Well, someone had to come check it out first. And
if you couldn’t tell, I’m taking another ordinary life situation and applying
it to the Christian walk. I like to do that, you know, finding parables in this
life. I find that it helps me to understand what it means to be a Christian.
Anyway, going back to building a house.
I’ve never built one but we did have a project similar to that in
Engineering 101. We had to design a laboratory for testing detectors. When I
first hear that, I immediately thought “We have to design what to do what??”.
Truthfully, the project became clearer as we were halfway through it, but I
accomplished the task. We were given a set of requirements and based on those
requirements we set out to design this laboratory. We went through different
scenarios such as where to build, how far away from the next major city, what
kind of land, what kind of materials etc. We had to analyze each part because
even in small ways, it could have had a negative effect on our building
(hypothetically speaking). What I realized, is that we don’t necessarily
realize where we have to put our trust when we become Christians. I may have
mentioned this a while back in a post titled “Where is your hope built” but I
think it’s good to reinforce this time and time again. As Christians, we
realize that our hope and trust needs to be in Jesus. But what does this really
mean. You see, when life is good, when things are going our way and it seems
like blessings from heaven are just falling like lemon drops and gum drops, it
is “easy” to be a Christian. Sure, Trusting Jesus is NO problem if life is like
this! But what happens when those lemon drops and gum drops feel like they’ve
turned to acid rain? What if it feels like there no escaping the torrent of
hail and wind storms that life brings? What happens to your faith then? Does it
shake? Does it shatter? This brings me back to the foundation example. Our
faith, our trust MUST be rooted in Christ, during good times and bad. When the
storms of life strip away our shingles, our sidings, even the contents of
ourselves, what is it that will remain standing? The foundation? Or nothing?
Sometimes we have to go through trials of fire to reveal our true character. To
refine our faith and sharpen our minds.
When I
was in school, one of my subjects was Bible Memory – and I hated that part. Not
the Bible, but memorizing bible verses. Let’s face it – I can memorize stupid
facts. I can tell you what the gravitational acceleration of a falling body is,
I can tell you why oil is liquid at room temperature and why butter is solid at
room temperature and so on. What is hard for me to do is memorize stuff that’s
really important…like things for school…things that have a grade attached to
it. Bible Memory was one. I remember one of my assignments was Proverbs 4. I
had some verses memorized and they were completely in the wrong order. See, we
memorized 4 verses at a time and recited them at the end of the week. Week 1
was verses 1-4, week 2 was verses 1-8, week 3 was verses 1-12 – you get the
idea.then came the week where I had to recite all 28 verses. And it was just. Not.
Happening. So my friend who would come over to our house to school while her
mom was at work, sat with me and we went through the whole thing verse by
verse. Well, I ended up recited it perfectly to my mom and I still remember it
today. I guess where I’m going with that is that committing those verses to
memory has paid off more than I ever could have imagined. See, when we know
stuff, we are able to recall it when we need it (Academic tests are a WAY
different story). Same thing with verses. When we are going through a
situation, good or bad, we are able to recall verses to mind and hopefully, it
helps direct our thoughts. It keeps our minds with a heavenly perspective and doesn't allow the Devil to wear us down. Hebrews 4 says “The Word of God is
living and Active, sharper than any double edged sword”
So going back to the house analogy but where is your foundation built? I know
where mine should be but sometimes it takes a few humps along the way to
remember that it’s not in my power, strength or self that my foundation is.
Being a Christian is a 25/7/365 experience. And I am guilty of making it a “when
I need it” experience. A personal relationship with Jesus Christ takes time and
commitment just like any other relationship. If there’s one thing God’s been
pressing on my heart lately, it’s my lack of being in the Word. I need to be in
the Word continually. That way, when my own storms threaten on the horizon, I’m
ready.
No comments:
Post a Comment