Rocky Foundations

In a Bible study that I am doing the passage of the wise man and the foolish man in Matthew 7 came up, you know the song... "The wise man built his house upon the rock... the rains came down and the floods came up (are you doing the motions)... and the house on the rock stood firm!" Well, as most of us probably, I thought, "oh ya, I know this passage" and didn't REALLY read it, went on and answered the study questions. But I thought of this passage all day and continued to have these images of houses in my head.

*I suppose a little side note would help out the reader at this point - I had still been struggling with prayer and guilt about my lack of dedication to spending time with the Lord, something that has been ongoing since the whirlwind of a couple of months when my mom died, the holidays, and Lincoln being born. I have known that the enemy was getting a foothold wherever possible but even knowing that wasn't helping my guilt, I guess the enemy knew that too.*

So as I am pondering this passage and images of houses something clicked... The house built on the sandy foundation obviously would not stand during a flood or even a fierce storm, even the foundation would be washed away. But the house built on the rock foundation is obviously different. If the house represents our lives then it needs to be maintained in order to continue to stand. We may get a broken window or need a new roof or perhaps some siding needs replaced but even when we sustain damage from a fierce storm, the foundation is still firm. The damage can be repaired. Sometimes when it is better to replace the entire the roof we can only afford to patch the holes.

I guess that is kind of how I have felt these last months... I know there are repairs that need to be made but I can only do what is absolutely necessary to get by. And yes, my house will still be standing on the firm foundation. It just may not look as nice and new as it once did. Maybe someday I will be able to really fix it up, remodel, or even upgrade. For now, I am thankful I can sit on my front porch and know that my house will stand when the storms come...