Foundation

Today's Scripture

I am an avid DIY'er and have done many projects on my home and in the homes of others. In my mind there is an important dividing line in home projects: new work or old work. As I thought about today's scripture this difference came to mind in a very practical and real sense.

I am actually going to first address the easy one: new work. New work is building something from scratch, new materials, a plan from the ground up - laid out just the way we want it to go. Plan the work, work the plan. Straight cuts, new parts, clean finish - AHHH. Don't get me wrong, I can still make these types of projects difficult and challenging based on my inability to plan, or lack of skill in executing the plan, but it's good to start on solid footing.

The other side of it is the 'old work' projects is that you have to work around existing structures, and often these keep you from tackling the project in the best way. I find that my creativity can really be challenged, and often I can find myself scratching my head wondering 'why did they build it that way in the first place?' When the underlying structures are questionable, it seems as though no amount of skill or creativity will result in a truly solid outcome. I have been known to start a 'little fix' project and partway through turn it into a teardown and rebuild because I just can't bring myself to invest the time, money and effort and be left with a shaky result.

What Jesus proposes as good thing for us is a combination of these two things. In the new work scenario, I can still mess it up if I am not a good planner, or if my skills in getting the foundational elements together is less than a professional level. Jesus sets the foundation for us to be able to build upon, and we can rely on it as 'done correctly'.

When the foundation is excellent, then 'old work' becomes easy. Square walls and level floors make building easy and give us confidence to move forward. Jesus is this foundation and it is good for us to recognize this regularly. When things are awry in our lives, we can often see that we have somehow slipped off of our foundation. When we are resilient and balanced, we can see that the Lord is what is keeping us there.

The song As For Me from one of my favorite bands, Rend Collective uses this phrase repeatedly: "When the Foundation's firm, the storms don't matter." Life is going to have storms, and as we approach winter, we will make sure we have salt and shovels, and full tanks, etc. Take a moment each day to check your foundation, when you do, the storms won't matter nearly as much.