A Win-Win!
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Matthew 7:24
I heard a story of a little boy that was soon to have a birthday. His parents tried to think of something for his birthday and finally asked him, “would you like to go to the Braves game for your birthday?” The little boy thought for a moment and then responded to his dad, “how about we do this - why don’t we have a big blow-up slide for my birthday and for your birthday you take me to the Braves game!” He had it all figured out that he could have a win-win for both birthdays!
If you attended church as a child, then more than likely you recognize the above passage as a familiar story in the Bible. The Bible story is about a wise man and a foolish man who each builds a house. In our kid’s church, we didn’t just see the flannelgraph story, or hear the story read to us, but we learned the song, along with the motions, that told the entire story!
In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, he prefaced this story with the emphasis on not just hearing his words but putting them into practice. Jesus used this example of two men each building a house. The first man who obeyed Jesus’ words was a wise man that built his house on a firm foundation – a rock. But the second man, referenced as a foolish man because he didn’t obey the words and teachings of Jesus, built his house on the sand.
The Bible says that the rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against the wise man’s house and the foolish man’s house. The wise man’s house stood firm and strong but the foolish man’s house fell with a great crash.
In the illustration, we see that these two scenarios have several points in common: they both built houses, both men heard Jesus’ teachings, and they both experienced the same set of circumstances in life. But the one difference between the two was that one chose to obey Jesus’ teachings while the other decided to live his own way.
In our minds, it doesn’t make sense that a man would build a house on sand. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what the outcome would be when you build on such a weak base. I am not an architect or builder, but even I know that if you want your house to stand you certainly don’t build a house on sand.
I can’t help but think that don’t we have the tendency to do the same thing? Just as these men, we to have the opportunity to build our lives on whatever foundation we choose. And we, too, are guaranteed that we will face storms in this life whether we are a Christian or not. But most of all, we too are faced with the decision of whether we will build our lives on a firm foundation, which is Jesus Christ, placing our hope and trust in Him; or, living as we please.
I don’t know about you, but I want to be like the little boy. I want to choose the “win-win” set-up which is this: I would rather build my life on Jesus and face whatever comes my way with Him by my side, rather than battling this life, charting my course on my own. What about you?
