by the Night Writer

We’re not in Kansas any more. Actually, I’ve never lived in Kansas but I thought about Kansas today during praise & worship at church. Well, what I was thinking about was “the rock” of my foundation and how important it is to build my house on the rock instead of shifting sand. So how does Kansas enter into this? Bear with me a moment.

In my last post I referenced Jesus’ parable of the man who builds his house on the solid rock vs. the man who builds on shifting sand and how these homes fare when the rains, floods and winds come along. As an analogy I described the rain as being the economy (dampening everything), the floods as what washes away our job or business and the winds as the stresses that come along in the storm that and batter us (perhaps in our relationships, or health), adding to the destruction. Jesus suggested we “build” our homes — or lives — on something that can’t be shaken and I’ve tried to renew my thinking over the years in order to do that. And that’s when I thought of Kansas.

You see, in “The Wizard of Oz”, when the twister appears on the Kansas horizon, Auntie Em and the others don’t have a basement in the farmhouse to run to. Instead they have a detached root or storm cellar for emergencies. When that picture appeared in my mind it made me realize that there are probably areas in my life where I’ve built near my foundation but not actually upon it; things that look solid and even Biblical and may even be good, but are not built on that key foundation. “Doctrines of man” might be an example of this. Meanwhile, we take for granted the thing with the solid foundation, perhaps using it for storage or our convenience, almost forgetting what it’s there for.

The thing is, when the storms and the wind come, the things I’ve built near the foundation — good, bad or indifferent — will blow away. The question I have to answer, then, is whether or not I’ll chase after those things that are blowing down the road (after all, I’ve likely put a lot of time and effort into these) or if I’ll look for people still out in the storm and try to wave them over into shelter.

What would you do?

bookmark to:
Surrender, Dorothy' to Del.icio.us" alt="Add 'Picture this: Surrender, Dorothy' to Del.icio.us" />Surrender, Dorothy' to digg" alt="Add 'Picture this: Surrender, Dorothy' to digg" />Surrender, Dorothy' to reddit" alt="Add 'Picture this: Surrender, Dorothy' to reddit" />Surrender, Dorothy' to Stumble Upon" alt="Add 'Picture this: Surrender, Dorothy' to Stumble Upon" />Surrender, Dorothy' to Google Bookmarks" alt="Add 'Picture this: Surrender, Dorothy' to Google Bookmarks" />Surrender, Dorothy' to Ask" alt="Add 'Picture this: Surrender, Dorothy' to Ask" />Surrender, Dorothy' to FaceBook" alt="Add 'Picture this: Surrender, Dorothy' to FaceBook" />Surrender, Dorothy' to Barrapunto" alt="Add 'Picture this: Surrender, Dorothy' to Barrapunto" />Surrender, Dorothy' to MySpace" alt="Add 'Picture this: Surrender, Dorothy' to MySpace" />Surrender, Dorothy' to Twitter" alt="Add 'Picture this: Surrender, Dorothy' to Twitter" />Surrender, Dorothy' to Social Bookmarking Reloaded" alt="Add 'Picture this: Surrender, Dorothy' to Social Bookmarking Reloaded" />