"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." — Luke 6:48
There's an irony behind building strong foundations to a building that goes something like this: the lower we go, the higher we go. What that basically means is that the height of a building is greatly determined by the depth of its foundation.
I don't know about you but it always feels the same way about life: the higher we want to go, the lower the depths God allows us to fall into. It may feel like you've hit rock bottom, but remember that before a skyscraper is built its foundation must hit the bottom or even deeper.
The best way to test your life's foundation is to bring it shaking into your life. Jesus spoke once about storms coming to challenge the depth and reliability of our foundation. If there's anything we know about storms in life is that they are sure to come. The question is never about whether we'll be ready if shaking happens, but about whether we'll be ready when they do.
Whether you like it or not, shaking will come to test your foundation. That shaking may be in the form of a bad day, a financial difficulty, a hard loss, a relational problem or even a threat to career and reputation. It's bound to happen. We don't wish for it to come, but it does. When it does, our foundation will be shown for what it's really worth.
The most important aspect of a foundation is where it lies upon. Common civil engineering practices state that foundations should ideally rest on a bedrock—an immovable cluster of boulders that will not move no matter what. In the same way in life, we need an immovable foundation—a bedrock that will not be moved no matter what.
What could that foundation be? It definitely can't be the economy since it shifts every so often. It can't be your career because your profession can and will be challenged at the macro and micro level. It also can't be your relationships because even the most meaningful relationships will experience shaking.
1 Corinthians 3:11 tells us, "For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ."
The firm foundation for any church, community, family or individual was and always will be Christ. When we are founded on Him, we will withstand any amount of shaking that life throws our way.
