What kind of foundation are we building on? In today’s gospel (Matthew 7:21-29), Jesus wasn’t talking about building an actual house, but about building a life – a life that is meaningful – a life worth living. We could certainly apply this teaching to marriages and families too.
When we’re building a life, we want it to be a life that we can look back on at the end of it without any regrets. When we’re building a family, we want that family to be stable, strong, and full of joy and love. If we want to build a life or a household that will last, that will stand, that will make a difference; we first need to understand what Jesus means when he talks about storms.
Last Sunday, we heard the story about the disciples in the boat with Jesus on the Sea of Galilee. A terrible storm comes and it’s so bad, they’re afraid that they’re going to drown. But Jesus is asleep in the stern of the boat. But notice exactly what scripture says, “Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion.” Basically, this is a pillow. So why is that so important?
If you’ve ever been on a long flight on an airplane, you know that before you take off the flight attendant asks you if you would like a pillow. The real question is: are you planning to sleep? If you have a cushion, it’s because you planned on sleeping! Jesus, in other words, wasn’t sleeping by accident. He wanted them to experience the storm. And Jesus does this to us too sometimes. We can all think about times in our lives when some terrible storms came and we shouted out to God in prayer, “Don’t you care if we drown?”
But that’s what storms do. Storms have a way of causing us to forget what Jesus told us. Storms have a way of keeping us from applying in a storm what we learned in the sunshine. The problem was not hearing the truth. The problem is applying the truth in a bad situation.
We’d all like a life, a marriage, a family, without any storms, at least not any big ones. But chances are, storms will come because they seem to come to every life, and every marriage, and every family sooner or later. Now the good news is this: it’s not the storms we need to fear. The storms are never the problem. I know of many lives and many marriages and many families that have experienced some terrible storms, and yet they’re still standing – and standing strong and vibrant. The storm wasn’t the problem with the two men in today’s gospel and it won’t be our problem either. So what is the problem?
The problem is our foundation of foolishness. For Jesus, a fool isn’t a person who lacks information or knowledge. A fool is a person who doesn’t implement the knowledge he has. Wisdom is not about what we know. Wisdom, according to Jesus, is the ability to take what we know – to take the divine truth – and apply it to our lives.
So I’ll ask again, “What kind of foundation are we building on?” Is our life, our marriage, our family, built on rock or on sand? And how do we know? We know when the storms come. This is why Jesus sleeps with a cushion sometimes, why He allows storms to come into our lives. Because only in the storms do we really learn whether we’re truly relying on God’s Word and promises or just listening to them. And Jesus knows that the only kind of life or marriage or family that can stand up against any storm is the one that is built on Him – on His love, His mercy, His peace and hope.
May we always be filled with wisdom so that we may build our house on the Rock of Jesus Christ.
