Weakened foundations are a serious problem for any building. A while back, when I was planning to buy a house in Oakdale, Louisiana, I went through the process of trying to buy a home. I had been hired by the Allen Parish School Board to teach seventh and eighth grade history at the middle school in that town. One of the inspections that was required was an engineering report which included an evaluation of the house’s foundation. After nearly a week of waiting to hear if the mortgage paperwork was done, I received a phone call from the bank’s loan officer – the house failed inspection because it had a weakened foundation!
At the time, being an impatient young man, I never understood the importance of having a strong and sure foundation when buying a house. In hindsight, I now understand the important spiritual lessons the Lord was teaching me nearly twenty years ago.
Weakened foundations can never prosper for long
He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great (Luke 6:48-49). In this teaching by Jesus, He is expounding on the only two ways people respond to the gospel message – they either accept it or don’t. Unlike the story of the Three Little Pigs where the descriptions of the three houses, one made of stone, one made of wood, and the other made of straw, Jesus’ teaching doesn’t give us any discernible difference in the appearances of the two houses. For all purposes of this particular lesson, the houses probably appeared identical. They probably offered the same luxuries, the same basic floor plan, and all the comforts of that era. The difference was in the foundations of the houses. While the one house had a strong foundation and would stand the test of time, the other house didn’t – in the words of Jesus, “and the ruin of that house was great.”
Anything we build in our lives, whether it be a family, a career, a home, or even a ministry, must be built upon a firm foundation. The apostle Paul, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, wrote: According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 3:10-11), as a testimony that the only foundation where we can truly build upon successfully is upon Jesus. Looking back at the biggest disasters and mistakes I’ve made, each one of them have this in common – I tried to build them on my own and on a foundation that wasn’t my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Even Job bears witness to the other foundations we try to use when we don’t rely on the Lord: How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth? They are destroyed from morning to evening: they perish for ever without any regarding it (Job 4:19-20). If we are all honest, we have all built aspects of our lives on foundations of dust and sand that crumbled before our eyes when even the slightest trial or tribulation headed our way. Weakened foundations will always fail us.
When we build on weakened foundations, not only do we experience failure but a sense of emptiness too. Again, if we are completely honest with ourselves, that empty feeling – the one where we begin to wonder why we are here – happens after we experience a setback from our failed plans. Plans that were built on something other than our faith in Jesus Christ. A few years back, I met a man who had given up a job where he was making a six-figure annual salary. Astonished, I asked him why and he told me – Jesus wasn’t in it. Yes, it is possible that your plans, in the strictest sense, may be successful, but again, if Jesus isn’t the foundation upon which it is built, it will never bring you the joy Jesus wants you to have. Anything that does not bring us the joy that Jesus has promised us we can have can never be a success, but will always fail; will always fall short.
Weakened foundations have impassable limits
I know that sub-title may sound a little funny, but there is a real lesson here. Nothing we build in this life will last if it is not built on the firm foundation of Jesus. I’ve learned through my experiences, and from watching the world around me, that when we build anything on a weakened foundation, we will come to a place where the foundation can no longer structurally handle the pressure being placed upon it. Marriages crumble when the relationship between husband and wife is built upon or becomes focused on something other than having Jesus as the center and foundation. Children become the victims of abuse or neglect when the home becomes focused and grounded upon something other than Jesus. Even the most noblest of our intentions will ultimately fail when we have built them upon something other than Jesus as the foundation; I’m reminded of the verse, And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men (Colossians 3:23). Whatever we put our hand out to do and if we are to succeed, we must make sure that Jesus is the foundation on which we build.
Weakened foundations keep us from reaching our fullest potential. While stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington in the early 1990s, I remember reading of a construction and renovation project that went horribly wrong. A local business was going to expand its showroom to incorporate what had once been an old garage attached to the building that housed the store. At one point, construction stopped as the old garage slab cracked and the new construction began to collapse. The city’s engineer had determined the old slab had a flaw in it and simply could not support the weight of the new construction. It was good enough to be used as a garage but couldn’t be expanded to do anything else. In the end, the shopkeeper had to remove the old foundation and replace it. Much is the same with anything we do without Christ as its foundation. If it is successful, it will only be for a short time. Eventually, we will reach the point where no matter what we try in our own power, it will still either fail or reach a point where it will not grow and prosper any further.
Looking back in my own life, there were things I set out to do that didn’t go the way I had hoped. Each of those things lasted as long as they could on the foundation of sand and dust they were built upon. From the start they were destined to fail because they were not built upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Could those things had survived the trials and tribulations? Yes, but it would have required rebuilding and setting upon the firm foundation and centering my efforts on Jesus.
Rebuilding and centering upon the firm foundation
A few semesters ago I had the privilege of teaching at our college’s extended campus in Morganfield, Kentucky. Although I only taught there for three semesters, I learned a lot during the one-hour commute into a predominantly rural area. There was one morning, when I was already a little behind schedule, when I was stuck behind a house-moving crew. What I could normally drive in thirty minutes became an hour-long ordeal. Later on that morning, while talking with one of my co-workers, I learned that her father was in the house-moving business and she then began to share the various stages required to move a house. She ended her explanation by saying, “if a house is moved properly, once it is set on a new foundation, it will be just as sturdy, if not better, than when it was on its original foundation.” A real-world testimony of the benefits of being on firm rather than weakened foundations.
Just like the house that can be made stronger from a newer, more secure foundation, anything in our lives can be made stronger if we center it on Jesus. Can a failing marriage be saved? Yes, as long as both husband and wife are committed to making Jesus the center of that marriage. Can an uncertain future or job be made more secure? Yes, when Jesus is placed at the center of it. No matter what it is, if you’re willing to place it upon the foundation of Jesus and allow Him to take lordship over it, you can gain great joy and peace from knowing Jesus wants His best for you. It may be that in the case of a job, a business you run, or maybe even a ministry you serve in is not what He has planned for you. You can take great comfort in knowing if He has called you out of it, He will never forsake or leave you. Even Paul took comfort in this fact as he wrote, Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee (Hebrews 13:5).
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