A Firm Foundation

We all subconsciously put something as the foundation for our lives, whether it’s a job, college, a significant other, our standing in society, or whatever else it might be.

But what happens when you no longer have those things? 

Who are you? 

What’s the meaning of life? 

When my health totally flipped my life upside down, and I became pretty much bed-bound when I was 19 years old, I was faced with these questions. To be honest, all I had was thoughts because there’s not much you can do when you spend most of your days stuck in bed too exhausted to even talk to your friends. 

As 19-year-old me lay in bed half awake and half asleep, I thought about the story of the three little pigs. (That’s when you know the isolation has kicked - in when you start to think about old children's stories you’ve heard!) 

The Three Little Pigs is a story we’re probably all familiar with. It's the story of how the three pigs all tried to build a sturdy house. One built a house with straw, one with sticks, and another with bricks. And then the big bad wolf came and blew the straw and the stick houses down, but he couldn’t blow the brick house down. 

Why?

Because the brick house was built on a firm foundation, and any good, sturdy house has a firm foundation. 

But as I was lying there, I thought that’s why God tells us to have HIM as our firm foundation. Because when the big bad wolves of this world (bad relationships, bad health, jobs, or a pandemic) come and try to huff and puff and blow us away, they can’t because we are a “house” built on a strong foundation. 

A life built on a relationship will be knocked down really quickly if the relationship ends.

A life built on a job will also crumble quickly if we lose that job. 

There’s nothing wrong with those things being part of our lives, but at the end of the day the “big bad wolves” exist and we need to have a sturdy foundation. 

I realized real fast that if my life wasn’t built on a sturdy foundation, I was going to crumble. 

Everything I had put my identity in was falling apart fast and I needed something stronger than fleeting material things or feelings and emotions to be the foundation of my life. Who better to be my foundation than the dude who created the heavens and the earth? 

So my question to you is, what/who is your foundation? 

"The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." Deuteronomy 31:8

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.  But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." Matthew 7:24-27