24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. Matthew 7
If I were to come up with a life theme for the past several weeks it would be a lack of guardrails leads men their greatest fall. Let me explain.
It was in the 80's when I finished my graduate degree and began working for an organization helping people overcome their barriers that I saw myself lacking spiritual accountability. As I entered the workforce I knew I needed to subject myself to a small group of like-minded men to be held accountable and to hold others accountable for spiritual life decisions.
But I wasn't outgoing enough to find that brand of men's accountability.
I decided to call the church office and make an appointment with Pastor Lester Nelson to seek help for this spiritual malaise. It wasn't long before I was introduced to another Christian man who was willing to meet with me to do a one-to-one discipleship program referred to as the Timothy program. He was much older and was much further on his Christian journey than I was.
Through this Spiritual mentoring program of reciting bible verses, doing the lessons from the book and praying together, I learned that what I was experiencing in this world isn't unusual. I learned also the need to always surround myself with Christian accountability.
It is not easy to subject oneself to accountability for the Bible makes reference to that notion through John 3:19- This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
From that simple one-to-one discipleship, I found another group of Christian men through the Navigator 2:7 program- a group of guys pursuing work they were trained to pursue. We met each week for a time of fellowship, bible verse memory, talking about our quiet times, and sharing our burdens with one another.
As I look at the world around me, I see damaged men laying on the side of the road, discarded as useless, because 'they loved the deeds of darkness more than they loved the light.'
Flash forward many years, after the loss of my daughter, I would soon learn that the men I had been meeting with would have their own share of tragedies- some with losses I had never heard before until my loss occurred.
Over the course of my life, I've heard many say they're doing just fine and have no time for God. I'm reminded through this verse in Matthew of the importance of building a good spiritual foundation:“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.'
The damaged and discarded men and woman laying on the side of the road didn't have to be that way if only they had taken better precautions and built their Spiritual foundation on the Rock.
No matter where you are on this journey called life, you can always build a better foundation, one that will stand the test of future storms.
Our future generations are depending on us to make the right decisions in life.
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