My Sinking Deck
“Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Matthew 7:24
The first sounds I hear nearly every morning are the spirited conversations between the birds that make my back yard their home. One season, however, their lovely melodies were drowned out by the deafening buzz of power saws. The culprit? A sinking deck. When we first built our home, we had a deck built on the back of the house. After about ten years, I observed a slight slant to the left when I stepped outside my back door. With each passing month, I noticed the slant became not so slight, requiring that I step down and not just out. A board began to bow, then another board, followed by nail pops and a distinct downward slope. The inevitable was happening: our deck was sinking.
What began as a small annoyance turned into a full-blown safety and stability issue. My husband called in expert carpenters from our church to determine what caused it and what needed to be done. They carefully examined the floor of the deck, pushed on warped boards, and climbed underneath for a closer look. We faced a two-fold diagnosis: the deck had not been properly bolted to the house to begin with, and the foundation had not been built up with backfill to compensate for water runoff.
The solution? Tear up the entire deck floor, jack up the deck, backfill the land, and anchor it to the house. Sigh. When the project was underway, I walked outside one morning to bring the guys a pitcher of ice water. We began to discuss the spiritual lessons our sinking deck provided. First, it’s a recipe for disaster to build anything without a proper foundation. Additionally, you must have a strong anchor. It took ten years to manifest, but a problem we couldn’t see - more than ten feet down - eventually made its way to our door.
So it is with our spiritual walk. Our lives must be built on the strong foundation of the Word of God and firmly anchored to Jesus Christ. We need to deal with sin and issues that no one can see before we begin to sink. In Matthew 7, Jesus shares this analogy:
“Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
In this parable, Jesus contrasts the actions of the wise and foolish builders. The wise builder is one who hears the words of Jesus and puts them into practice. He experiences rain, wind, and storms, yet the foundation stands because it was built on the rock. The foolish builder is one who hears the words of Jesus but does nothing with them. He also experiences rain, wind, and storms, but his house fell because it was built on sand. Both hunkered down to brave the same bad weather, but only one stood strong. Although we aren’t promised a trouble-free life, we don’t have to sink. Take time to lay a solid foundation. It might cost you a little more in time and discipline, but not doing it will prove far more expensive.
The morning our deck was complete, I awoke once again to the birds’ sweet serenade. As I stepped outside onto a new, level deck, I thanked God for His Word as the foundation of my life. Trials will come. Storms will rage. But, when we are anchored in Jesus, we will stand.
