“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great” (Luke 6:46-49).
One of the many things we’re asked to do after being accepted to go on the World Race is to complete a fundraising course to help prepare us for the seemingly endless amount of fundraising we have to do. Being less than thrilled about the idea of raising support, I naturally put this off for a good three months. Today, I finally sat down and forced myself to get started with it. And you know what? I’m actually enjoying it. I’ve already gotten so much out of it and I haven’t even gotten all the way through the first lesson yet. So, I thought I’d share a few of my thoughts with you. I hope you’re able to gain from this as well!
The first lesson is about rejecting a spirit of pride. We were asked to read Luke 6:46-49 (above), and think about this question (among others): Why is this a story of pride vs. humility?
I’ll admit, I was a little stumped at first. I’ve heard this passage many times before, but I’ve never really thought of it as a story of pride and humility. My first thought was, “well obviously building your house on the rock symbolizes building a life that is firmly rooted in Christ, but how does this passage teach us about humility?”
But as I read through it over and over, there were a couple of words that finally jumped out at me: “he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock.” I started thinking about the act of digging, and what that could mean in regards to pride and humility.
Building our lives upon the ground without foundation means that we are relying solely on ourselves and our own self-sufficiency to hold us up. It means being easily swayed and quick to succumb to everything this world throws at us. Sure, the soil might hold us up for a little while, but what happens when the storms of life come through and wash it all away? Inevitably, our house is going to collapse. The only way we will be sustained is by building our lives upon the rock. But how do we do this?
Well, first we have to dig through all the soil that stands in the way–in this case, pride and self-sufficiency. And the more soil there is to dig through, the deeper we will have to lower ourselves in order to set our feet on solid foundation. It’s only after we dig through and rid ourselves of that soil that we will reach the foundation. We must lower ourselves before we can stand on solid ground. Once we are rid of our pride and self-sufficiency, we can begin to build our lives upon the rock and be firmly rooted in Christ, who will always sustain us and always hold us up through the storms.
Building your house upon the rock requires great faith. To the rest of the world, you’re probably going to seem foolish at times. When the world is built upon the soil, it’s hard for them to understand why you would be digging up that soil. This is the soil they’ve built their lives upon, and now you’re digging it up. And how do you know what lies underneath it? How do you know that the rock is going to be there? But even though you can’t see what lies below the soil, sometimes you just have to keep on digging and trust that He’ll be there when you reach rock bottom. He will be there underneath it all, so keep on digging.
