“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. 3:11)
One summer at the house where we used to spend our summer vacations, I decided to clean up a cellar hole from a building that had once been on the land. I don’t think anyone had bothered to clean it out for many decades. It was filled with old tree limbs, trash, rotten leaves, and tangled vines.
When some neighbors asked why I was tackling this project, I didn’t have any answers. Although there was nothing interesting, historical, or noteworthy about that cellar hole, I still felt compelled to clean it out.
After spending two weeks digging out and cleaning up, I finally uncovered the foundation. As I looked at and thought about this empty cellar hole, it became clear why I had done this project.
My digging away the debris in order to find the foundation of this actual building is what I needed to do with my own spiritual foundation. The outward and visible work of cleaning out the mess, the rot, and the debris was the inward and spiritual work I’d been neglecting.
In today’s scripture, Paul says that our foundation needs to be Jesus Christ. Each one of us is called to build a life. If we’re to create a life where we can stand tall, stand strong, and stand solid, we need a strong foundation. There’s no stronger foundation than Jesus Christ, for only Jesus and His strength can sustain us through all of life’s challenges.
Today I encourage you to think and pray about whether you might need to do some of your own excavation work. Is there some debris or mess or garbage that needs to be dug out? Are there some distractions or habits, or temptations that need to be discarded?
We all periodically need to do this digging-out-spiritual work in order to find out or to be reminded of how much we need Jesus to be the firm foundation in our lives.
Reflection Questions:
- When was the last time you did some serious spiritual excavation work?
- When you did go through this spiritual digging, clearing, and cleaning, what did you find? What was the debris that needed to be cleared out?
- How strong is the Jesus-foundation in your life right now? Are there any repairs that need to take place?