A Giant Sinkhole!
Two years ago in Florida, something happened that hadn’t happened in more than 30 years.
That summer, in 2017, the news broke that a large sinkhole had opened up in Land O’Lakes, FL, just north of Tampa.
Apparently, sinkholes are quite common in Florida, more so than any other state because so much of the state is made up of limestone that slowly, over time, becomes eroded by rainwater. At some point, the weight of whatever is above ground is too great to be supported by the porous bedrock underground and it gives way.
This sinkhole started in a subdivision of houses under where a boat was parked. The ground started sinking in almost like quicksand. When it was first noticed the authorities were called. By the time they arrived, the sinkhole had already progressed.
Two homes were quickly destroyed that day on July 14, 2017.
Can you imagine getting the call from your neighbor, or from the authorities, saying, “You need to get home quick. There’s a sinkhole. Your entire house is about to collapse.”
Then you pull up. You see the sinkhole approaching the corner of your house. And there’s nothing you can do except watch it swallow up your entire house.
When the sinkhole reached the first home, they said it was like an invisible boulder hit the house. The foundation completely gave way and it just collapsed.
All in all, seven homes were either destroyed or condemned. It was the largest sinkhole reported in Florida in more than 30 years! By the time the sinkhole had stopped expanding, it had reached over 260 feet wide and more than 50 feet deep.
Things Are Falling Apart!
Have you ever felt like your life was built on a sinkhole? I think we sometimes feel this way.
We say things like, “Life is spinning out of control.” Or, “It feels like things are falling apart,” or even, “things are falling through the cracks.”
Sometimes when we get bad news, we’ll hear people say they’ve been “shaken to the core.”
Sometimes it feels that way for a lot of us. The old saying is that “Murphy has moved in next door.” That’s a reference to Murphy’s Law which basically says anything that can go wrong does go wrong. I don’t know who Murphy is, but there are times in life when we have all felt that way.
It’s as if the life we’ve built is sitting precariously above a sinkhole and we live life just hoping that the ground won’t give way and that everything won’t come crashing down all around us.
But what if there were a way that we could live a life that was never spinning out of control? What if we could live the life we live in such a way that no matter what happened, it didn’t feel like our lives were falling apart? Where, come what may, your inner-life was calm, unshaken, and able to stand firm even when the sinkholes of life hit?
Is that even possible?
What if it is?
Built on TRUTH
This is part of the reason the Apostle Paul was writing a letter to the group of Jesus followers living in the ancient city of Colosse some 2000 years ago. He had a deep desire for them to build their lives on the TRUTH of Jesus so that no matter what they faced they could remain standing if they built their lives on the truth of Jesus.
For them, they were primarily dealing with false teaching from other religious leaders. They had a choice, to build their faith on the TRUTH of Jesus or on the lies others were offering.
By the way, I think this is the same choice we have today. We get to choose if we’re going to build our lives on the truth of Jesus or if we’re going to build our lives on the lies that others are offering.
Here’s the TRUTH that Paul wanted them to build their lives on. If you have your Bibles of Bible App, you can open to Colossians 1.22-23…
Yet now he [GOD] has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News.
What I want to suggest is that the most important thing about you may be the TRUTH you choose to build your life on. And the reality is that so many of us willingly choose to build the entirety of our lives, not on this truth, but on a LIE.
What happens when Monday comes?
If you’re not a follower of Jesus, here’s the good news for you. You can build your life on whatever truth you want. You can believe whatever you want and you can choose whatever foundation you like for your life.
However, if you are a follower of Jesus, then you’ve already chosen your foundation. You’ve already chosen WHO you are going to build your life on. You’ve already decided the TRUTH that will be the CORNERSTONE of your life.
But here’s what happens to so many of us. We confess our faith in Jesus. We make Him the Lord and Savior of our lives. We sing songs on Sunday and proclaim our faith, trust, and hope in Christ and Christ alone on the first day of the week.
But then Monday comes, and we go back to work, and we build our lives on the lie that if we just had more money, then we would be happy.
Then Monday comes, and we build our lives on the lie that if we just had that house or that car, we would be happy.
Then Monday comes and we build our lives on the lie that if we just had that job, or that promotion, or that office we would be happy.
Then Monday comes and we build our lives on the lie that if our kid could just get on that team, or just get into that school, or just get that thing, then we would be happy.
Then Monday comes and we build our lives on the lie that if we could just get into that relationship, or out of that relationship, we would be happy.
Then Monday comes and we build our lives on the lie that there is something other than God that we need to complete our lives. That there is something other than Jesus that we need in addition to Jesus to make our lives complete. That there is something more than his Holy Spirit that needs to happen inside of us for us to be happy.
And I know this is true because Monday comes and we spend all our time thinking about, worrying about, planning for, bargaining for, working towards everything that this world has to offer and little or no time building our lives on the ONE who has given us EVERYTHING.
We know the TRUTH. But we don’t “believe this truth and stand firmly in it.”
Instead, we “drift away from the assurance [WE] received when [WE] heard the Good News.”
We have the same problem these first followers of Jesus that Paul is writing to are experiencing. We’re believing the lies that the world around us is telling us and we’re building our lives on those lies.
What truth are you building your life on?
How do you, practically speaking, build your life on Jesus? How do you choose, daily, to build your life on Jesus and NOT on the lies the world has to offer?
The way we build our life of the truth of Jesus is through the discipline of spiritual practices.
Whenever we talk about this, we always start with the same two spiritual practices because they are foundational.
We say…
- Read your Bible.
- Pray every day.
And reading your Bible is absolutely an incredible starting point for you and if you’re not reading your Bible every day let me encourage you to start that today! And if you don’t know where to start let me encourage you to start with what we call the Red Letters, the words of Jesus. If you want to build a life that stands there’s no better foundation than the words of Jesus.
And you should absolutely pray every day. Prayer is your opportunity to talk with God, to share your heart with Him and He loves nothing more than to hear your voice and to hear you pray. And if you don’t know how to pray, let me encourage you to learn from Jesus. He taught us how to pray in Matthew 6.9-13.
These are foundational. Absolutely. You have to start here by reading your Bible and praying every day. I really do believe that.
But if you are deeply interested in building your life on Jesus, in building a foundation that will stand, let me encourage you not to stop there. Start there, absolutely, but don’t stop there. There are 2000 years of spiritual practices waiting for you to try, to experiment with, for you to see what works for you and how you can grow in your relationship with God.
Some of you will be drawn more to practices like silence, contemplation and meditation. Some of you will be drawn to art and things like Visio Divina or scripture and Lectio Divina. Some of you will be drawn to practices like fasting, or giving, or worship, or imaginative prayer.
If you want to build a life that is built to stand, it is a life built ON Jesus but it is built BY spiritual practices.
Paul said… “Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News.”
The spiritual practices are how we stay tethered, how we keep from drifting away!
And this is so important because the foundation of our lives is the cross of Jesus Christ. This is why you can stand firm!
When you build your life daily on Jesus your life can withstand whatever comes your way because of Jesus.
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