Building a Strong Foundation

Many of you know that we have recently left the church where we have attended and served for the past 16+ years. This was a very hard decision for us to make, but it was the right thing for us, and frankly, the right thing for the church.

In any event, we’ve been visiting different churches over the past five months and have heard some great messages. I think we’re close to choosing a congregation to affiliate with, which will be nice since we have been in WAY TOO MUCH transition in the past year. So, I wanted to comment on a message I heard last Sunday, and it’s from the passage in Matthew 7 about the wise builder and the foolish builder.

For those of you not familiar with the story, Jesus contrasts two different house builders – one who took the time to find a spot that had solid rock foundation underneath it, and one who skipped that step and just build on a less than stable foundation, sand. Even if you haven’t heard or read the story, you can imagine what the outcome of these two houses were. Both were built lavishly with the best of furnishings on the inside and the nicest exterior lighting and landscaping. And then storms came, and these two seemingly identical houses had completely different fates. The house that had the solid foundation withstood the brunt of the storm. It likely lost some shutters, maybe had some trees fall, and may have even lost a couple of windows. But, it was still likely livable and didn’t suffer any structural damage.

The other example, of course, didn’t fare as well. Not only did it suffer cosmetic damage, but the force of the storm caused the whole house to collapse. Reminds me of years ago when the houses on the cliffs in Malibu, CA started sliding down the hill. The foundation underneath was not as solid as it once was, so as it deteriorated, the constant pounding of the rains caused the foundation to give way. No matter how much the homeowners did to make the house look nice, it was still doomed to collapse.

I really think this analogy applies to every part of our life. I was having a conversation a few weeks ago with a friend of mine who’s marriage was in trouble. As I began to think about the issues that he and his wife were facing, I couldn’t help but wonder what their foundation was built on. Now, clearly the foundation that I believe in is that of Christ, but even outside of that, I really wonder for those marriages that fail if they really invest in building their relationship on “solid ground”. Because the storms will come, no matter what. As much as you fix up the way your marriage looks on the outside and even try to make the inside look pretty, as soon as a storm comes, you can either be putting shutters back on, cleaning up debris and rebuilding, or you can find yourself having your family completely demolished and faced with whether you even want to build on that same spot again.

Apply the same analogy to personal life, corporate life, and any of your relationships, and it really causes you to think not if you’re investing, but rather how and where you’re investing.

Get some concrete, some jacks, and shore up your foundation. There will be plenty of time to pick out paint colors and replace cabinets.

Peace.