From Repurposed Find to Life Found Day 3

Day 3

I hope many of you were introduced to your heart yesterday. When I first met my heart, I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. In some ways, it was like meeting an old friend I hadn't seen in quite some time. There were some dreams I had forgotten, some activities I didn't realize I enjoyed that I had quit doing, some people I remembered who I was really grateful for during some rough times in my life. There were also some painful memories I had conveniently blocked out. I was able to reflect on these memories and like a rushing river, follow the path back to the origin of the flow. So today I want us to consider our foundations that are central to who we are. Have you ever watched a foundation for a home being prepped and poured? It isn't as easy as just laying forms and pouring concrete. No, the site must be prepared first. The terrain must be considered. Is it already flat and ready for the foundation or is it bumpy and jagged with rocks, obstacles that must be moved for a firm foundation to be laid?
 The next step is you have to dig deeper than the foundation will be laid and lay gravel or sand down to prevent moisture from seeping under the foundation. Then the forms are laid, the boundaries that will encapsulate the concrete. Steel rebar is put down in a grid, this gives the concrete something to grip onto and gives it integrity. Sometimes to really secure it beams are placed in it too with hook like things to ensure it's really grabbed and secure. Finally the concrete is poured in and it moves in between the grid of rebar, it latches onto the beams and the boundaries. It's left to cure and set. To firm up so that it cannot be shaken or moved. Once it's set, you can begin to see the future upon that foundation. Where rooms will be, where we will live, where memories will be made.
 So you can see how important it is for a solid foundation. Interestingly enough, one of the causes of a bad foundation is adding too much water to the mixture to make it easier to work with. It reminds me that we can water down our lives, to make things easier. We water things down so it's easier for us to accept. We water things down so we can allow for habits, for choices, for people that maybe really don't belong as part of our foundation. It takes a couple days to lay a foundation, but have you ever watched what it takes to break up a bad foundation or one that shouldn't be there? It takes heavy duty tools to break through the foundation and the rebar. A foundation that was laid in two days could take two weeks or more to break up, haul off and redo. Friends, I need you to really grab that visual. So often, it takes us no time to accept and "pour" into our lives things that don't really belong. But, when we finally have an epiphany, when we finally get it, when we accept that our foundation needs to change? It can take a really long time to rebuild the ruins once we break through our foundations. I'm wondering if we couldn't really consider that today. 

In your quiet time today, think about your foundation. What have you allowed to be mixed in while it was being set? When you examined what you've allowed to be built on your foundation, were you surprised?  Is it time to repair or even break up your foundation and take the time to have a new one engineered by your master builder Jesus? Ask Him, when you're ready, he'd love to go over the blueprints with you. 

Matthew 7:24-27

The Message (MSG)

24-25 “These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.
26-27 “But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.”