Are You Camping on Concrete

I was fifteen when my parents built the house they’re in now. I remember when the foundation was poured. My sisters and I felt duty bound to trace our names in the wet concrete beside the carport. I don’t remember asking permission. Note to self: I should ask Mama if she and Papa appreciated our signatures or if they were surprised by them. However, I can tell you what surprised me in those early building stages, the foundation. It was so much smaller than I expected.

Fortunately, we didn’t call off the builders and set up house on the foundation. By the time the framework started going up and the walls started materializing the house was much more like the dream home I had pictured. Maybe it’s just me, maybe it’s an optical illusion, but over the years I’ve noticed that all foundations look smaller to me than their actual square footage.

I see truth in that memory. To seek to live a good life, to attempt to live a righteous life without building on the foundation that is Jesus Christ is futile. But, to stop there, with the foundation—this is woefully sad. To rest on the foundation without resorting to Him for the building of the superstructure He wants your life to become is akin to throwing down a blanket on cold hard concrete. Anyone living such a life is destined to feel like the foundation doesn’t quite fulfill their expectations.

This shouldn’t be! For those who have signed our names in the foundation, our faith and our lives are meant to be working together to build a holy temple of the Lord, a place for us to revel in and a home base from which we can minister to those around us. What’s more, all the building tools we’ll ever need are found between the pages of His living word and His spirit beating in our chests. I’m after His grace and His glory. Won’t you join me?

Hugs,
Shellie