Architects, Engineers, and Construction Workers

Driving down any street anywhere in the world, we see all different types of structures:  retail stores, churches, houses, office buildings, banks, hospitals, and schools.  Some are simple and others are elaborate.  Some are built in the most out of way places like mountain tops and some on streets that are zoned by local government.  All of these structures require planning, preparation, and construction.  Architects design the structure, engineers design the layout of the streets, and construction workers build the structures.

The construction phase begins with the foundation.  Foundations are extremely important.  My father was a builder.  He was instrumental in building many church buildings during his life.  When I was about five and six, my friend Danny and I decided we were going to build a church.  My father gave us some old lumber, some nails, and a hammer.  He taught us how to hammer.  Our building did not stand.  It kept falling down.  My father looked at what we did and he told us that we didn't have a good foundation for the building to stand.

Our lives need a foundation also.  God is our Architect.  God has drawn the plans for us to living in loving relationships with God, others, and self.  Yet, we live in a world that does not understand how to construct a life filled with loving relationships.  It is so easy to construct a life built on own understanding that is influenced by the culture and the world in which we live and dismiss God the Architect's plans for how to live.  We hear that God does not exist and that the Bible is full of myths and fables.

There comes a time when a foundation is chosen.   Jesus told a parable about two men who built homes.  One built his home on solid rock and the other on the sand.  When the storms came, the house built on the sound collapsed.  The house built on solid rock stood.  There is a great hymn of the church based on this parable:

And my hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness
And I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly lean on Jesus' name

On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
And all other ground is sinking sand

When darkness seems to hide His face
I rest on His unchanging grace
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil

On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
And all other ground is sinking sand, yeah

I don't know about you, but I choose God's plans and designs!