#11 God as our Foundation?

Ahh, we have finally come to a christian adage. You know, this has always felt like one of those “band-aid” answers that I would so often hear from people who didn’t actually know what they were talking about. Like when you use the word “religion,” and they immediately snap back with “IT’S NOT A RELIGION, IT’S A RELATIONSHIP!” Although sentiments like that are true, they’re annoying if you don’t understand what they mean. But the idea of God being our firm foundation is starting to become clear to me and I want to help unpack it for you.

I once heard a song by TobyMac that talks about God as our cornerstone and I thought to myself “now, what does that really look like?” I could try to muster up a textbook answer for you, but what good does that do? Let’s get ourselves something we can truly live out, shall we? First of all, the concept of a cornerstone is about the means-the way you do things. It’s about your top priority. If your highest priority is money, then everything that ends in you getting a paycheck is good. If your cornerstone is chicken nuggets, then everything you do is to get more chicken nuggets. 

And here’s why the bible talks about these foundations being sinking sand: they don’t satisfy. Have you ever tried to move sand on the beach? I’m not talking by the beach, I mean the stuff that gets slapped by the oncoming waves. If you’ve ever tried it, you’d know that it gets nowhere-the sand just trickles back in as soon as you move it. That’s the satisfaction that comes with living for some of the stuff this world has to offer. Eventually you need more and more of it. And as you get more it becomes less, slipping through your fingers like wet beach sand. 

But there’s meaning to this idea beyond the idea of contentment. Doing things God’s way is to do them right, in such a way that things don’t come crumbling down before their time. The way I understand this, once again, through drumming. When I first started out, I was taught how to hold the sticks. You’d think that would be easy enough, right? Wrong! If you don’t hold a drum stick the right way, you can’t control the bounce of the stick. If you hold it right, you can tap the drum head far faster than you would have been able to otherwise. 

And that’s my point. I have met many outsiders who act like Christianity is a series of obnoxious rules to blindly follow. The truth of the matter is that these are guidelines so that life goes better for us in the long run. Think of it like your car. Sure, it’s a pain to change the oil and fill it with gas every week, but we rarely complain about it because we know that the car breaks down if we don’t take good care of it. Why, then, do we assume that proper care of ourselves and our lives is up to interpretation at best, and optional at worst? Why has it become more acceptable to not tell people what to do than to point out that they could be living life so much better? That they have so much more potential that they could unleash if they just lived as God told them? Strange thing, isn’t it?

No, I’m not going to go on that rant today. The point I am trying to make is this: if you want to build a good fortress, you need to build it properly and fortify it as you go. The bible is the means to do that. Now, it’s not going to pop up like a personal sticky note that says “THOU SHALT BUYETH MILK TODAY!” Oh, how I wish it were that simple. No, what the bible lays out are values, and the way to blend them properly in the blender of our lives. It may not feel like a cookbook, filled with specific recipes that make your decisions for you, but it’s a guide to the framework of cooking. The more you study it, the more you understand how to build your life, and how to focus on the things that will last and satisfy. 

At the end of the day, that would be my greatest takeaway. Begin your journey to learn how to properly build your life. Even if you don’t follow the life of the ordinary, the life truly worth living will take some proper building. Take some time to get to know the one who invented the art of building and see about doing it all properly. The process might get messy, it might feel like the adventure you never asked for, but it will most certainly be good in the end. 

But before I wrap things up, I just wanted to emphasize something: doing things properly doesn’t always mean every moment will be clean and tidy. It doesn’t mean that everything will feel like it fits into place all the time, or that nothing will ever be a mess again. Sometimes we fall down a bad path and we need to let go of a few things to get back up. Sometimes, certain things are only meant to be for a season and it may be time to let go of something old for something new. Part of building a proper life is rolling with the punches, and not getting too stuck in a certain chapter. Good prayer and tuning into the right sources will give you the feedback you need to get it right. 

There, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I feel I can properly wrap this up. Take some time to get focused and start tuning in to the things that really matter. Ask yourself what you are focused on. What do you, perhaps, care too much about? Reflect on where you are and who you are, and ask God to show you where He might want to do some work with you. I pray you learn the art of good living, and that your day is beautifully productive. 

Until next time

May Peace be your guide.