Dan Dick at United Methodeviations has done it again with words I needed to hear and that many followers of Christ in the church need to hear. All I can say about this great post is click quick and read again and again.
Jesus tells the story of two houses (Matthew 7:24-27). Both houses face great dangers: storms come, waves crash, and winds blow. Can you feel the fear and anxiety?
Sounds familiar. We face many events that trigger anxiety. Does anyone really know what is going on with the economy? Many people’s futures hold uncertainty. Billions of people in our world aren’t even sure what today holds. Families and friendships near to us are being stretched and are breaking or are broken. With each passing day and year we find our bodies and minds unable to work the way we want them and we wonder what is happening to us. We listen to and read the news from around the world and around the corner and hear all the dangers from people who seek power through violence and about microscopic organisms that could be anywhere. The stress-inducing list continues endlessly.
Back to the two houses of Jesus’ story. One house withstands the storms, one house falls apart. What is the difference?
One house is built on the shifting sands of myriad lesser voices around and within us? We try to follow popular opinion, but it is always fickle and gets blown about by the winds of fear. It doesn’t work to follow whatever is trendy, interesting, or in our face either; nothing solid there. An ancient writer talks about bad and harmful thoughts that destabilize our soul’s foundation: pride, envy, anger, greed, apathy, lust and gluttony. So often the voices of other people’s disapproval and judgment lead us to the more fearful responses. Some voices tell us there really isn’t anything to be afraid of, then reality comes crashing against us. Other voices only cry out that we are doomed. All these sandy voices see only part of the truth of life.
So we come to the second house. This house is built on solid rock, a whole and holy view of God’s greater reality. Here we see something deeper and more enduring than the shifting sands of time and the passing waves of the fear-tsunamis and anxiety-storms. When Jesus invites us into a worry-less life (Matthew 6:25-34) he does so based on a foundation of hoping and knowing that God’s great Love is the bigger truth that underlies and fills our life.
How do we build on that foundation? By returning again and again to the story of God’s love for us. Read your Bible to keep remembering, gather in worship with a community of faith people, and exercise that growing hope in prayer.
At our local National Day of Prayer, I offered the Global prayer. Here is my prayer…
O God, you remind us daily that we are all connected in one global community. What happens in one corner of our planet touches our lives and our choices affect the whole. Help us to see our political borders and divisions as human constructions and not part of your divine creation and plan.
Grant us the grace to be better stewards of your creation and better neighbors. May each of us continue to seek justice in all our relationships, wisdom in all our ideas and attitudes and peace in our hearts and in our world.
I pray today for each of the over 6.7 billion members of our world-wide community. Touch each life with your righteousness and love. May each one know your life-giving presence in some way today.