What Is My Foundation?

Last September in 2013, Big Thompson Canyon, near Estes Park in Colorado, experienced a disaster- extreme flooding. I watched as it unfolded with interest marked by fear. We vacation in the Big Thompson Canyon every year, so the catastrophe there felt personal. It is amazing how destructive water can be. I saw the remnants of that destruction this July as we returned to the Big Thompson for vacation. Even though vast amounts of cleanup have occurred, the signs of the flood remain. Traumatic events are like that- scars remain long after the trauma has ended.  Driving down the canyon I saw evidence of the flood around every bend.

And then there was this house…

This house remains. Clinging to the side of the mountain with its foundation washed away. Uninhabitable.

This house made me think- on what have I built my house? (And by my house, I really mean my life.) What is my foundation? When the flood waters come up in my life, as they are bound to, will I stand or will I fall?

The problem is the most tempting things in life to build my foundation upon are the wrong ones. I know. I’ve tried some of them.

Here is what I know: if my life is built on anything that can change, is circumstantial, or is dependent upon another person, then it will not hold up to the storms.

Things like:

• Finances
• Fairness
• My children’s anything: success, SAT score, job, all-star status, grades, achievements, etc.
• Relationships
• My job, my successes, my achievements, my accolades, my, my, my….
• Expectations: both realistic and unrealistic
• Results: any results

These things can fail and if I rest my foundation on the fulfillment of any one of these, it will never hold up. Finances can run out, life is not fair, children falter, and relationships can be deeply painful. All the achievements I could manage to rack up in my life will still be hollow and even my most reasonable of expectations can fail to be met.

So what foundation can I use? There is only One.

“Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them…he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it.”   Lk. 6:47, 48

Jesus is my foundation.

No storm can topple Him.

No wave can erode Him.

No shaking can dislodge Him.

No catastrophe can change Him.

Why would I build my life on anything else?

What have you built your foundation upon?