Chasing Conformity...: Houses on Sand

Don Simon in the background, and
Carmen making concrete for bricks

Don Simon was a kind man who, after a bout with a roof, a falling car, and slipping on blood, met Jesus. It's crazy the things God has to do for us to encounter the truth of his Gospel. Don Simon wasn't a stranger to injury, and wasn't really all that prepared for what the injuries would cost him. He's just a poor old guy who lives in a poor community in a stone and mud house with one lightbulb and dirt floors. There is no foundation, but it works. He has shelter from the rain. It's practical, but not durable. It's useful to an extent, but not optimal. Why? Because there is no foundation.

We have a horrible tendency to walk around with ideas and opinions that are like Don Simon's house, useful and practical (to us), but neither durable nor optimal. This is how we build our theology too. Let's face it, we are a lazy when it comes to foundations. We want quick and easy. We buy cream of chicken to make creamy soup, because it takes too long to make a rich rue or homemade broth. We'd rather use the high sodium, high preservative, not-too-good for us alternative. In America, more people eat microwavable popcorn than stove-top kernels. Most of us use "instant" everything we can get, and really love craft kits that do not require all the prep-time of a truly hand and home made treasure. We idolize our time and energy for other task because productivity is often our unknown god. We like to "cover more ground" and things that are "quick and easy." We are a people who have trumped the elegant detail of the renaissance with the broad strokes of modern abstract. It's true that art is the truest testament of our culture; think of all the ways we've made the arts accessible and the inventions we've created to facilitate a greater prevalence of talent...like photoshop.

A few years ago, my family and I got the opportunity to go to Don Simon's house and help a team of short-term missionaries build a house for his son. The houses now sit next to one another on Don Simon's small lot. The new house is smaller than the older one, but it is much stronger. Not just because of it's brick and mortar construction, but because of it's strong foundation and thick corner posts. It was a grueling but necessary step in order to make a house that would be durable and strong in order to serve this new family well. With shovels, a prep team had to dig up the hard earth and create deep, even trenches to serve as the space for the concrete foundation and the base of the corner columns that would support the heavy roof. It took almost a week of hard labor, sweat, and probably some blood to get the trenches dug, foundation poured, and corner posts hardened. Just in time for the American team to lay the bricks and add the roof.

There is a real analogy here, that is revealing of our spiritual state and carnal dispositions. We like the brick facade and the ease of laying brick upon brick with machine mixed quick-crete, but we aren't nearly as willing to dig the trenches and construct the load bearing corner posts. We like to sit in church and hear a summary of scripture, or worse, a topical commentary extrapolated without thorough, exegetical study. We base our opinion on assumptions and presuppositions rather than on the firm foundation of God's authoritative word. Then when we encounter opposition we research verses to "proof-text" our assumptions without thought to context, application, or spiritual humility. We construct a house that is, for us, useful and practical, but it is far from durable and optimal.

Look at what Jesus says in Matthew 7:24-27 about hearing and doing his commands while seeking to bear fruit in Christ...

"Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it."

When we build our houses of theology upon the sands of our opinions, we will suffer much harm when the winds and storms of testing and affliction come. But, if we build our houses upon the rock of Christ, mainly, his holy word, we will be strengthened to endure to his glory. We cannot wallow in our laziness, but must diligently search the scriptures. God's word is, in essence, the hands of the heavenly potter who wants to mold and shape you into HIS creation. The Bereans were more noble than the Thessalonians because of Acts 17:11. We should do likewise in all things. Whether measuring the words of our pastors' sermons or deciding on our vote for presidency, let God's word shape you, and may your foundation be made strong.