“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.” (Matthew 7:24-25)
One of the ‘feeds’ on my Facebook page today was a story that, to me, was very timely to the gospel of Matthew I read for tomorrow. It says there’s a ‘conspiracy theory’ making the rounds and gaining momentum that the world actually ended in 2012, and that those of us still around now are living in an ‘alternate timeline’ that is so ridiculous it must be true. It cites the election of Donald Trump and the passage of Brexit as clear examples of the theory. Obviously, somebody who has watched too many Marvel movies and has too much time on their hands came up with this as a joke. In fact, I double-checked to see if the article may have been published by one of the satirical websites. It wasn’t. What troubles me upon reading the article is that the faith and/or inner strength of so many people is so weak that they would actually entertain its veracity!
When life is easy and all goes smoothly, we don’t necessarily need great inner strength. When money is plentiful, we have many friends, we have our health and our family all gets along, life can be good. And, in that case, life can even be easy. But there are few who can go through life without facing some storm. I daresay the entire world is being tested these days with the pandemic and social unrest due to racism. When that happens, our inner strength is tested, and the strength of our inner convictions is required.
In the gospel I reflected on today (Matthew 7:21-29), the rain, floods, and wind that buffeted the house in Jesus’ story are actually a good thing, because they allow the foundation of the house to manifest its stability. So it is with us. The foundation of our lives must be our fidelity to the Word of God. Jesus makes it clear that we will have a solid foundation only when we listen to His words and act on them.
There are many examples of strength and weakness all around us as found in nature, leadership on a national and local level, church, and community as well as family and friend relationships. We would like to think that the gift of faith we’ve all been given is going to be rock solid all of the time no matter what challenge comes our way! Jesus tells us that if we only listen to him and stay connected all will be well. Our faith calls us to be open to the high tide that may wash away our hopes and dreams only to make way for those life-giving God experiences that low tide may wash upon our shores.
Give thanks to a God whose foundation is rock solid and able to endure the winds and rain as well as the sunny days and star-filled nights.
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