Has your world been shaken? Have things once solid and firm suddenly become like quicksand? Maybe the problem is that you’re standing on the wrong foundation. What is your foundation? How do you make sense of the world? Where do you place your hopes? Where do your dreams come from? Who do you run to when things fall apart? To whom do you turn to make things right? Maybe it’s time to go home.
Consider for a moment Jesus’ Parable of the Prodigal Son. Not content with the safety and security provided by his father the younger son takes his inheritance and tries to build the world he’s always wanted. It actually worked for a while. He had friends, he had fun, he had significance. Life must have felt pretty solid and secure. And then the whole thing literally turned to pig slop. It’s not easy to walk when the manure is ankle deep or worse (city folk will just have to believe this country boy on that one). His world was shaken to its core. Hopeless, helpless, lost in depression and despair, hungry, dirty, and without a friend to help him stand, his thoughts turned towards home and the only solid place left to him.
That’s what the solid foundation of following Jesus should feel like. Like we’ve come home after being shaken until there’s nothing left. I like the picture painted by the Psalmist. “He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.” (Psalm 40:2, NASB95) The prophet Isaiah declared, “Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed.” (Isaiah 28:16, NASB95) Jesus, speaking about himself in answer to the religious leaders of the Temple said, “Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, This became the chief corner stone; This came about from the Lord, And it is marvelous in our eyes’?” (Matthew 21:42, NASB95)
So maybe, just maybe, if it seems like life is slipping and sliding in pig slop there could be a problem with your foundation. The foundation being your core principles, beliefs, and understandings of what life is all about. What is your foundation? How do you make sense of the world? Where do you place your hopes? Where do your dreams come from? Who do you run to when things fall apart? To whom do you turn to make things right? Maybe it’s time to rebuild your life on the cornerstone of Jesus Christ.
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Thanks, Dale. We are still praying for the child. This is a good reminder about where we should be.