Firm Foundation

Every building has to have a foundation. Without it, the building would most likely fall apart. You can't build something without a foundation. It might be okay for a while, but eventually, a lack of foundation is inevitably going to cause a variety of problems. I have found that the same is true in our lives. We need to have a solid foundation to build our lives upon, one that will not and cannot be shaken. God really gave me a wake-up call on this one recently. I'd like to say that I have been building my foundation solely on Christ, but I've realized that this is not the case. Especially over the past few years, I've built my foundation on what other people think of me. I've been obsessed with it. If I say or do something that I think may have slightly offended someone, I immediately assume that they hate me, and this causes me to be depressed. If I started to feel good about myself, I would look at someone else and think, "she's better than me. I'll never be as good as her." I would be almost paranoid to be around certain people because I was scared I would do or say something stupid. You can see where this could easily become a problem, because as human beings, we aren't going to be perfect. We can't. We're going to offend people, there's always going to be someone better than us (and we're going to be better than others at certain things), and we are going to embarrass ourselves! Instead of walking on eggshells and being consumed with what other people think of us, we need to focus on who we are in Christ! I started thinking about it, and I realized that other people are going to disappoint me. After all, it's not their job to make me feel valuable! Instead, my foundation has to be built on Christ, in Whom I will NEVER be disappointed. He says I am loved, valuable, His treasured possession, and worth far more than rubies. I always wondered why I could never seem to find the joy that Christians are supposed to have, and then I realized that this joy shines through those who are consumed with Jesus and building their foundation on Him. If I'm building my foundation on anything other than Him, I'm going to end up depressed and constantly longing for more than the opinions of others have to offer. Jesus IS the firm foundation. I have decided to start rebuilding my life's foundation on the one He has already established.

A lesson in cleaning...

My mom decided that today was going to be "cleaning day." Rather than complain, I decided to just go with it because there is a corner in my room full of clutter that I've been needing to deal with for a long time now. I tried to ignore it, but it never went away. I said to myself, "I'll go through it eventually," but I never did. But, today was the day. I started pulling things out and going through them. There were binders full of papers from school/church from up to two years ago! It ended up taking me an hour to go through all of it! I ended up finding some pretty interesting stuff, and while it was actually kind of fun looking through all of my old papers, by the time I was done I had a giant stack overflowing with, well, junk. I separated everything into two stacks: things to keep and things to throw away. Do I even need to tell you that the "Throw Away" stack was MUCH larger than the "Keep" stack? I got the biggest trash bag I could find and started filling it up. As I did so, I realized how out of hand things had gotten in that corner. It had started small. That was my designated "school corner" in which I kept all of my binders/textbooks, but over time it became my "everything-I-can't-find-a-place-for corner" and I just let it build up until it was just a giant mess! I thought to myself, "how did I let it get this bad?" You might find yourself thinking the same thing, whether it be about the condition of your house or the condition of your heart. I began to think that a lot of the time, our hearts look a lot like that cluttered corner. Maybe we're still feeling guilty about something we did in the past and have never dealt with. Maybe we're holding a grudge against someone who has wronged us in the past. Maybe we're bitter about the direction our life has gone. Whatever it is, I think it's time to sort through the junk and be set free. It's easy to ignore it and hope it will just somehow disappear, but the reality is quite the opposite. If we let it go, the junk will just continue to pile up until our hearts are hardened and we become indifferent. See, I didn't realize how bad it was in that corner. It didn't jump out at me when I walked into my room; rather, it was a PART of my room. I got to where I didn't really even notice it. But once I cleaned it out, my room all of a sudden looked so much nicer! It felt more roomy and I definitely noticed a huge difference. In the same way, a lot of the time we don't realize how weighted down we are. But oh the freedom we will experience when we take the time to sort through all of the clutter in our lives! If you know you have some clutter that needs to be dealt with, let today be the day that you bring it to light and get rid of it! If you can't think of anything, examine yourself carefully. You're bound to find something that needs to be dealt with. Like I said, you may not realize it's there until you sort through and experience a freedom that comes from Christ alone! "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of faith. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:1-2

Washed Away

My family and I are spending a few days at the beach. One of my favorite things to do is go stand near the edge of the water, dig my feet into the sand, and watch as the water comes up and washes the sand away. It's a complete cleansing; like my feet never touched the sand. In an instant, my feet are completely clean! It's such an amazing thing to watch. As I stood at the shore letting the waves sweep over my feet, I realized that Jesus does the same thing. We trudge through the sand of life for so long, and He calls us to the ocean of His love where He washes our sins away and makes us completely clean. In an instant of accepting His grace and unconditional love, we are made new. The "sand" in our life is completely washed away and we are free. I love to make visual connections to spiritual truths, and this one was particularly powerful. Have you been walking in the sand too long? Is it time for you to be clean? Run to His never-ending love that washes us clean and covers us like an ocean. "But if we live in the light, as God does, we share in life with each other. And the blood of His Son Jesus washes all our sins away." 1 John 1:7 (CEV)