City Life Starter

Written by Scott Fiddler

The Word

⁴⁶ “Now why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? ⁴⁷ Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: ⁴⁸ he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when there was a flood, the river burst against that house and yet it could not shake it, because it had been well built.

Luke 6:46-48 (NASB)

Commentary

In 1992, two years after we were married, my wife, Cindy, and I bought our first home. It was located on Belrose Drive in the Westbury section of Houston. Most of the homes in the subdivision were built in the 1960s. Cindy is great at home decorating, and while our home on Belrose Drive was certainly a starter, inside it was beautiful.

About two years after we moved in, we began to notice cracks in the sheetrock in different rooms. The cracks were small at first, and our guests didn’t notice them (although we knew they were there), but over time the cracks grew larger and could no longer be hidden.

When we began to ask around, we learned the cracks were a result of a bad foundation and that it would require an expensive repair involving the installation of concrete piers underneath the  home that reached down deeper where the soil was firm. I learned foundation problems in Houston are common because of the volatility of the Houston soil but that installing concrete piers usually solved the problem. So, I asked, “Why don’t homebuilders build homes on concrete piers so that don’t have to worry about doing foundation repair later?” The answer: the cost.

Application

As the cracks in the walls of our beautifully decorated home became bigger, it became a strange anachronistic image. In the same way, Christians, created in the image of God and redeemed by the blood of Jesus, can demonstrate much that is representative of Jesus to the world, but there can also be cracks. Those crack may be so small at first that only we know they are there, but eventually they grow larger until there is no hiding them. 

Those cracks typically exists because we didn’t want to pay the full cost of discipleship when we began following Jesus. That cost is obedience. Luke 6:46 (“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord’ but do not do what I say?”). In the end, though, there is no getting around the cost of a firm foundation. If we want to fix the cracks, we must repair the foundation, so that our lives are built firmly on the Word.

Prayer

Lord, show me where my foundation needs repair. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.