Remembrance

" 'But why do you call Me "Lord, Lord," and do not do the things which I say? Whoever comes to me, and hears my sayings and and does them, I will show you whom he is like: 'He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the storm beat vehemently; and immeadiately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.' " Luke 6:46-49

It's funny how my life is converging around this verse right now...after I wrote the last blog I went out onto our deck with my dad's Bible and opened to these words (well, I opened to Song of Solomon first...). Do you remember the song you sang in Sunday school about this? "the foolish man built his house upon the sand/ the foolish man built his house upon the sand...the wise man built his house upon the rock...the floods came up and the rains came down/ but the house on the rock stood firm" I do...but I don't recall them ever telling me they were talking about the sayings of Jesus and how if we follow them with our lives, we will have a firm foundation! Ohhh!!! I get it!

This is so important for this time in my life too...in all our lives. We live in a post-modern world, where people pick and choose what they want to believe and we find places of worship that will serve us the general gist of what we already believe--whether we're Muslims, fundamentalist Christians, Catholics, Baha'i...we find a place where other people congregate who believe the same things we do. Even atheists do this! But here Jesus is shown as a man who is not concerned with where you worship Him--this is not about that. Rather, have you heard what He said? Are you following what He said? Now it has nothing to do with your church and what they believe...this is about you. Have you laid a firm foundation for yourself?

I know I haven't...this world continually suprises me and knocks me flat. I am so tossed by trying to figure out how to live, why to believe anything...it all gets so dense and complicated and I don't have answers...no wonder I have buried myslef in enetertainment...I don't know how to deal! But here Jesus offers a solution--a place to rest my weary head. He says, "Follow my teachings, do what I say and your foundation cannot be shaken." He is firm footing...

And another thing addressed here: do something!!!! A sermon I listened to recently said the same thing (but it was talking about the story which involves a master who went on a trip and put his servants in charge of different amounts of money). The story ends with the master coming home and the servants show him what they've done with the money. The first two increased what the master gave to them, but the last...buried the money in the ground. He was the one who was rebuked...because he had done nothing with what he had been given!!! It's a stroy for us--what have we done with what we have been entrusted with? The worst thing of all is to do nothing...

It's about potential...we all have some measure of good we can bring to the world. It's been placed within us. Christ created us to do good works, bringing glory to our Father in heaven. But so often, we hoard. We're so afraid: what if I fail? What if I do the wrong thing? What if no one notices? But we must give an account...so we cannot just let the beautiful gifts slip through our fingers. God created beautiful people when he created me and you. We were meant to love without reservation, to give as much as we can to others, to bring joy...Maybe we've lost that as time has gone on and we have lived in this world and seen it's tortures and faced questions without answers...but let that go. Find freedom. Find again who you were created to be. If you have become bitter or negative or so filled with a weariness that you feel you can't move forward...take it to Jesus. Seriously cry out and He will hear. He is no magician...but He is connected to our Father...and He is good. He will hear from heaven and come to your aid...maybe in ways you don't expect and maybe it will take more time than you think it should, but He will come. Trust me. I trust Him.