Jesus said, “However,
everyone who listens to these sayings of mine but fails to put them into
practice can be compared to a stupid man, who built his house on sand. When the
rain pelted down and the torrents came and the winds gusted and buffeted that
house, it collapsed and was a total write-off.”
—
Matthew 7:26-27 (USC)
FOLLY is the
opportunity of wasting a perfectly good life, to insist upon how it shall be
run.
We have all had that
opportunity. None of us have wasted the opportunity to waste our lives. We have
all perfected — to some degree — how to blaspheme life, which is to say, we
have insulted God. Grace. Grace enrolled over us for our wasting such a
precious thing.
Such is the grace of
God, we have been forgiven all those iniquities of waste that we have laid up
for ourselves through the passage of our time here on earth.
It’s okay. We regret
it, though it’s not God making us feel that way. It’s our own sense of remorse
we wrestle with — that we were and are wired to do God’s will.
Because eternity is
hardwired into the heart of our soul we cannot resist making the most of life.
Whenever we miss this mark — and we all do — regret is the inevitable
conclusion.
***
But this section of
Scripture is not simply about regret. It’s about destruction; the purgation of a
life. Not everyone experiences the torment that their actions of wastage
deserve, but blessed are they who do suffer and learn through the torment the
better way to live.
A house built on
sand that is lashed by pelting rain, swept away by the torrent, and buffeted by
cyclonic winds is a property vanquished. It was but it’s there no more.
All that can be done
is to build again; this time on rock.
For all of us who
have experienced such a purgation — who have responded to endure that storm of a
living death in life — an absolute calamity — we can testify. God is faithful.
He brings us through!
But it’s better by
far to build on rock in the first place.
Those who build on
rock build for the present and future having learned from the past.
So as it is, that’s
our opportunity, today.
Storms are
indiscriminate. They beat against us all. We all build a life. Why build on shifting
sand when we can build on solid rock.
***
QUESTIONS in REVIEW:
1. The storms of life: how have you
endured your own storms? Have they made you better or bitter? What can be done
to make for the best response?
2. Whether you stand today on sand
or on rock, what can be done to prepare for the inevitable storm?
© 2015 S. J. Wickham.
Note: USC version is Under the Southern Cross, The New Testament in Australian English
(2014). This translation was painstakingly developed by Dr Richard Moore, a NT
Greek scholar, over nearly thirty years.
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