In a world that is admittedly broken, where do we find sure footing?
Nothing about the material world around us was made to hold up. It is all fleeting— temporary. When we put our confidence in something we have been told is not sturdy, why are we so shaken and surprised when it fails to hold us up? This has been my year for finding my footing, as well as, my not so sure footing, and yet, despite it all, the upheaval, confusion, disappointment and frustration, I can’t help but consider it all to have been worth it. It’s allowed me to uncover the solid truth.
There is only one thing we know for sure. Only one thing has withstood since the beginning of time. That’s not even a figure of speech. I mean this one thing has never changed. It was there when time began, and it will be forever. The most consistent thing we know of is also the most powerful force ever— so powerful we cannot relate. Which might explain why we so easily forget to remember this is the only truth.
Each and every time the sand shakes and shifts beneath our feet, each time the upheaval, confusion, disappointment and frustration sets in, despite thousands of years of explicit warnings, his mercy never fails to rescue those who believe. New Mercy… morning after morning…mourning after mourning. Why do we do it? Why do we keep choosing wobbly foundations? Why do we put our hopes on the unreliable?
His mercy never fails even when we do. The Maker of Heaven and Earth never runs out of gas. He makes trip after trip from Eternity into the temporary, broken land to personally take my hand and help me out from my mess of rubble. And so, there’s something about the shifting sand…that…I don’t know…. it feels weird to say it…. I’m grateful for it? Because of this situation, this sandy moment, I get to experience the King of Kings become my personal, real-time Savior, a King whose compassion is so deep, it never runs out. He keeps coming to help me sort things out, to reflect and see where I placed my trust on an unsteady foundation.
Count it all JOY my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds…
These words pulsed through my veins as I experienced the truth that there is only one consistency in this life, and the learning of that truth brought me a satisfying and comforting sense of joy.
Lots of changes lately…interruptions, rearrangements, reestablishing, rediscovering— a time of realizing that no earthly thing is guaranteed to be consistent or reliable— no person, no possession, and no ability. But realizing that truth, and the process of establishing this as the new foundation beneath your life, may also feel like demolition.
For you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
A life of true purpose takes perseverance and requires endurance. The process of becoming truly free and useful for a greater purpose, turns out, is mostly about unbecoming the things we were never meant to assume about ourselves in the first place, rather than adding on more things to be and do. And it’s a conflicting process, but in order to build back stronger, we have to knock down what we built on false foundations. We have to tear down the things we built upon cultural assumptions, people pleasing, false identities. These things were never capable of holding up the weight of life.
The process of building a life on truth and purpose is not like building a life the way we so often see. It’s not about adding new levels of achievement. That’s good news. Right? We’re saying that the “good life” does not take striving and climbing towards goals. I think that’s good news? …it sounds like good news. But why won’t it sink in? Why won’t my mind accept that it’s even possible?
The world sets examples everywhere we look… it tells us to stack up achievements and possessions the way a brick layer builds a house. And before we know it— we’ve followed that example and piled a ton of obligations upon a worldly foundation that was not designed to hold that kind of pressure.
We have to ask ourselves: Who told me this was the way to build my life? The culture around me? My fellow creations? Or the God above me?…the one who created me at the beginning of time with a plan, a dream, a purpose? Our brains get programmed to the operations of this world— so committed to the system of piling on bricks, earning and striving our way to the good life, assuming that the way it’s being done by the others is the way it’s suppose to be done. We get so used to this way that when someone tries to set us free from this thinking we question their sanity! But truthfully, there’s so much about these assumptions that makes “asses of u and me”. It’s me that the “ass” when I fall for it and trap my life under the world’s ways. Cuz we are not of this world— just in it. We are not here to assume the ways of the world. We came here to bring the truth into the world: ”May your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven”. No human being on the earth knows why you are here. You are not the tail trailing behind the other creations ideals. You are the head, and you are leading a life and a heavenly purpose all your own.
The Living Spirit of God is still alive and active today. The Holy Spirit can help you to distinguish your truth from the world’s false assumptions even when the two are as intertwined and difficult to distinguish as bone is from marrow— but only when we have the courage to ask for that distinction— only when we have the audacity to not assume. Why do we waste our days living out assumptions when we are capable of that kind of discernment? Why do we keep working so damn hard to build our lives on the wobbly foundations of cultural standards which make no promises to hold up over time?
I’m writing this to remind you and me both: don’t misplace your trust. When we put our hope on an unstable foundation— a person, a job, an ability— we are just gambling with time— waiting to see not if but when that foundation will fail to support the pressure we’ve put on it. Those things were not designed to carry so much weight. And we were not designed to rely on them.
When worldly foundations fail us, let’s take it as an opportunity to see where we have mistakenly built on an unreliable foundation. Accept the opportunity to start over and rebuild, but this time on true and solid Rock. This world doesn’t know it all, and you can tell just by opening your eyes and looking around. The world is not sturdy enough to hold all our hopes and dreams, but God is, and he comes with the Promises to back it up.
When we’ve put too much pressure on a person, a job or a possession to supply our joy and fulfillment, it will eventually fail. It isn’t made to last, and when it lets us down, the result is a very significant lack of joy. When this happens, I challenge you to not wallow in self pity, but to instead, count it as JOY because that’s where this is allllll heading. When the sands shift, you still have one Assurance: a Savior— a powerful King who offers a personal hand in the rebuilding process.
And know this: your pure heart is not being punished. This is your good God revealing to you the poor foundations beneath your feet, giving you an opportunity and his help to build back better. This is the gift of sight— the God of mercy giving you the eyes to see. I will always remember the times he pulled me from the rubble and helped me clean up, when he polished my life to shine with a brighter reflection of Him.
Ask him to search you and give you the wisdom to see false footings. Ask for courage when it’s time to tear down, rearrange and rebuild. You don’t have to wait for it all to come crashing, and you don’t have to fear the demolition process either. Embrace it. Let him reveal what needs rebuilding… and what needs polishing.
Count it all JOY my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds…
For you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
And let endurance have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, he is a double minded man, unstable in all his ways.
-James 1:2-8