Five Stick Friday

One of the things that fascinates me the most about the teachings of Jesus Christ is the use of parables. One could surmise that Jesus might not have really trusted our intellect a whole bunch, because He regularly chose to break down his teaching with quippy little stories to get His point across. For instance, He told a parable of a wise and foolish man who set out to build their homes.

He easily could’ve just said…”Hey, listen up…I’m giving you really life-changing teaching here. Teaching that if properly conceptualized and applied could change the happiness you experience going through life from here forward…”

But He didn’t, did He?

No…instead, He said this: ( Matthew 7:24-27 )

24“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.

25 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.

26 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.

27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

He painted a picture. One we could all understand. Could He have gone further? Yeah…I have to think so.

If it were THAT obvious of a choice, why would ANYONE ever build their house on the sand? I’ve got some ideas.

The Age of the Microwave

Our generation grew up before but are now living in the age of the microwave oven. Instant gratification. Want a baked potato? Don’t wanna actually bake it? A few minutes and a microwave and voila…a “baked” potato.

And once we all got a proverbial taste of that kind of convenience, speed, and instant gratification, perhaps maybe we allowed ourselves to seek out the same in areas of our lives where, pardon the pun, “speed kills”.

Marriage isnt working out? Eh, just get a divorce and start over. Convenience. Not always completely enamored with your job? Just quit! And get another one. Instant gratification. No reason for self reflection…instant gratification. We live in the age of the microwave after all. Now while in both of those cases if there is truly something irreconcilable and all effort humanly possible has been applied, yeah…maybe a divorce or a new job is called for. But maybe it’s a “house on the sand”.

It’s alot easier to build a house on the sound than on the rocks. There are less obstacles, the construction would be quicker, and the expense less…at least for the short term. But both metaphorically and physically, building a foundation on sand would obviously be next to impossible. And anything without a foundation is eventually coming down.

A house in Jesus’ story. But it just have easily could have been a marriage, a relationship with your children, your career, or your general ability to be a good citizen.

So why did Jesus choose a house for his story? Who knows…but using a house does offer up an immediate way to demonstrate the flightiness of taking the “quick route” with your foundation. Bad weather.

Because bad weather always comes. Both literally but also figuratively. Bad weather comes in the form of a health diagnosis, losing a job, an unloving marriage, petulant children, or many other forms. If you’ve built a foundation, none of these will be wildly comfortable, but they also won’t be a complete and total disaster.

Notice in verse 27 Jesus said “The rain came down…” Other translations say “For when the rains come…” He made no bones about it. Regardless of where you build your “house”, the weather is eventually coming.

Because it is. And it does.

I won a hymn memorization contest when I was in the 6th grade. I’m not really sure why, but music always had a way of helping me internalize words and memorize them. If there’d only been a musical text for Organic Chemistry or Physics when I was at Georgia Tech! But, I digress. One of the 3 gazillion hymns I sang for Romelle Holloway, my 6th grade choir teacher, was “On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand”. The lyrics went something like this…

VERSE 1:
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name
VERSE 2:
When darkness seems to hide His face
I rest on His unchanging grace
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil
CHORUS:
On Christ the solid Rock I stand!
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand
VERSE 3:
His oath, His covenant His blood
Support me in the whelming flood
When all around my soul gives way
He then is all my Hope and Stay
VERSE 4:
When He shall come with trumpet sound
Oh may I then in Him be found
Dressed in His righteousness alone
Faultless to stand before the throne

And if you’re wondering, yes…we got extra credit for singing all the verses!

And yet, while internalizing and regurgitating these type of lyrics for truly an amazing number of hymns ( the contest was tight! ) I never really realized I was doing just that…spitting out words that I didn’t even understand the meaning of.

But as I barrel relentlessly towards 60 years old in a few months, some of those lyrics now come back to me and I pause, reflect, and go …”Uh, duh! That’s what that hymn meant!”

And so today, if there’s someone reading this that’s thinking about “taking the easy way out” and building their “foundation” on “sinking sand” I’ll challenge you to this…

Buy a “red letter” new testament. The words in red are the teachings of Jesus Christ. Some are very straightforward. Some, in my opinion, require a lifetime of pondering. But of this I’m 100 percent sure…if all 7 billion of us on the planet lived by the “code” in those words, we wouldn’t recognize the paradise that we live in.

Instead we’ve chosen ( throughout history) a path of greed, conquest, division, and suffering. You really don’t have to get off page 1 of the newspaper ( excuse me…the online front page of the computer screen….instant gratification and all ) to see what I’m saying is obvious.

So…read those red words. What can’t you live by? Loving one another? Being generous with your time, talent, and treasure? “Suffering” the children? Which thing did He say that creates a deal breaker?

In my times of disbelief, and there have been plenty of those, this is where I always revisit my personal “foundation”. Because while Jesus was hailed as a “radical”, there’s nothing radical about being a good person who realizes he is flawed, and has been given a code…a foundation…to live by.

So, throughout my 59+ years of life, I’ve had plenty of storms. The promotion I thought I deserved didn’t happen. The funding for a business venture that was all but done fell through. Disagreements and flat out arguments with my wife and children. A health diagnosis that I’m still as I type recovering from.

But, I have a “foundation”…because in my humble opinion…and it is JUST that…an opinion ( you’ll never catch me in this blog professing to have everything figured out…)… but in my opinion “all other ground is indeed sinking sand”.

I wish well to whoever happens to read this, either today when I type it, tomorrow when I post it, or 10 years from now when you really needed to see it.

One last note for the atheist or agnostic reader, which I welcome and would love to converse with beyond this blog…Every teaching of Jesus still “works” for humanity whether He ever existed or not…

And with that…until next time. ( And if you want to be notified when next time actually is…find the “Newsletter” box on any blogpost and cough up an email address…thanks! Might want to make http://www.fivestickfriday.com domain accessible to your inbox as opposed to “Promotions” or “Spam” as well)