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I woke up this morning with my brain making up variations on “The wise man built his house upon the rock.” (ex. “The wise man lived his life above reproach” or “The wise man spent his time above the fray.”) I really don’t know why I was thinking of that, but it fit right in with the lesson in Sunday school today about the foundation that we build our lives upon. One of the great things that Sister Monson did with the lesson was that she started off playing How Firm a Foundation while the class sang verses 1, 2, & 7. I love that hymn – like many that have extra verses written outside the music, we don’t sing the later verses nearly enough.
As we were talking about what it means to build our lives on a foundation of Christ I realized that our real foundation in life, no matter what we might profess, is the thing that never gives when push comes to shove. It reminded me of a discussion that took place on the blog of a friend in early 2007:
The key is to remember that there can be only one rock upon which to build your knowledge. Everything else must be window-dressing. . . Even your rock must be open for reexamination because if it can’t withstand a challenge it isn’t much of a rock.
If the foundation that we claim to be built on can be shifed by the challenges that we face then it is more sand than rock.
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5 replies on “How Firm a Foundation”
thanks for reminding me of some of my earlier posts from my other blog. We all think of rock as hard, but in the overall scheme of things, some rock is anything but. Build your house on certain shales, and you are likely to be changing address from time to time. Think of the dramatic sandstone cliffs of southern Utah, overlaying weak crumbling layers of rock below, creating the plateaus that our State is famous for.
Certain rocks withstand the test of time. Others erode freely under the conditions of rain, wind and temperature variations. Some rocks become extremely strong through extreme pressure and heat. You could probably find use of these metamorphic rocks as a “ahem” metaphor in a future sunday school lesson.
What is interesting to me, is how so many religious ideas have been abandoned by the tests of the scientific method. Whether it is the placement of our planet in the universe, the age of the earth, or the origins of man, science has displaced many of the most cherished and devoutly believed dogmas of the past. The rock upon which much of religion was built upon has turned to sand. At what point will society look for a more reliable rock upon which to build it’s foundation? (sorry, Obi’s rhetorical question for the day) That is the question atheists like myself struggle with.
Best regards.
You make a good point Obi wan. When we speak of having a solid foundation and a rock upon which we build our lives, it is important to remember that sandstone and granite are both “rock” but they don’t make equally good foundation material for the temples of our lives.
Interestingly, it is often sandstones that are more resilient than shales. Sandstones have larger grains, but seem to cohere better, while shales have smaller grains, but disintegrate much easier. At some point, it’s those “grains of truth” that ultimately make rock impermeable to erosion.
Boy do I feel metamorphical, I mean, metaphorical tonight.
Best regards.
I guess you just have to decide how granular you want the analogy to become. 😛
I agree , a good foundations is very essential because it will determine how strong and stable your moral and belief systems will be.
If your core is weak to begin with you can easily be swayed and coerced