PROTECTION WHEN WE NEED IT

I was on my way home from the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport when I happened to glance in the rear view mirror and was stunned at what I saw. No, it was not the flashing lights of a police car.  What I saw in my mirror was a cut-down golf cart about to pass me going at least 70 miles per hour!

The golf cart sped by me and the driver was laughing and seemed to be enjoying himself. This was the first time I had been passed on the freeway by a golf cart so let me try and describe what I saw. The cart had been modified so that it was basically a cut-down metal box, with two front seats and an engine in the back. There was no top on the box, no roll bar, no seat belts, a very small windshield — and the driver was not wearing a helmet. The ugly green box had the small wheels that you normally associate with a golf cart, not the larger size that are on off-road vehicles.

I watched the cart go by me and then take the exit ramp onto another freeway and that was the last I saw of it. The “thing” that went by me was unlicensed. Why is that no surprise?

As I drove on home, my mind was full of questions. Some of the questions have obvious answers and some will go unanswered because I doubt that I will ever meet the driver of the cart. Why do people consciously put themselves in situations where the chance of survival is minimal if an accident happens? Why do so many of us feel that we are immune to the really big problems of life? Why do we, when we know better, chafe at doing what we know is the right thing?

Jesus speaks to these questions in a story:

“Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great” (Luke 6:47-49, ESV).

Here’s the picture. There are two men in identical situations and they get the same set of instructions from the Lord. Both men are attempting to get to the same place of completion/fulfillment in life. They both build buildings, face the same stresses and strains of life, and yet have very dissimilar results.

One of the men had his life collapse around him; everything was a loss, complete destruction! The other man went through exactly the same adversity and life struck at him just as hard, but he survived it all; his life did not collapse, and he got where he wanted to go. This man had a level of security that the first man did not. How could this be and how can we lay hold of this?

Jesus said that the survivor, as he prepared to build, first “dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock.” The survivor dug through the sand and the debris and got to the bedrock. The second man decided to build without all that effort; most likely he got his shovel out, pushed the sand around, leveled the ground and removed any obvious imperfections like rocks and broken pieces of wood sticking out of the ground. He was more interested in looking good than he was in building right; his approach was cosmetic and not thoughtful and purposeful. He knew this was not the way to build but he did it anyway.

The survivor did not try to build his future on the sands of his past but on the Rock. The second man attempted to build his future on the sand and debris of his past life. When the storm struck, the cosmetic Christian did not survive; his quick-fix, look-good-now approach did not provide him any lasting protection; he was anchored to nothing but sand. The man who “dug down deep” and put in a foundation was buffeted and beat on by the same storm and came through it all because he was anchored to what really held him securely.

I am not talking about doctrine here. I really don’t think it matters all that much what you believe about the end times, about Calvinism or other debatable “hot button” issues. I am talking about having a solid relationship with God through His Son. I am talking about having a relationship with God that is not cosmetic but is real and vibrant. Now that’s a firm foundation and the rest is just interesting trivia. I’m saying that a solid relationship/foundation has to come first and then you can decorate the building with trivia.

If we “dig down” and lay that foundation of a relationship with God, when the heat is on and the going gets tough we will be anchored and have the protection we need. Jesus guarantees it!