Usually my missionary memories are from past years, but todays is from this afternoon!
We are in the process of replacing the carpet on our church stage with tile. This actually involves more than I first expected since the foundation had to be absolutely sold.
I noticed while preaching certain areas of the stage would creak while walking over them. This made me wonder if the stage itself would have to be completely redone with cement instead of wooden braces! Thankfully all we had to do was strengthen the supports themselves.
So I had some men make sure the stage could support tile
- They took up the top plyboard, and supports where a crack had developed in the floor tile
- The crack was filled with cement, smoothed over, and the supports were re-attached
- A second sheet of ply was added to the stage cross-ways (in a different direction), and fastened firmly to the frame with screws and nails
One of the workers was walking around the stage carefully this afternoon feeling for soft spots, and whenever he felt one, carefully drew an x on the board. A young men would then hammer a nail into that x. It wasn’t till every worker was completely satisfied the foundation was solid that the job was considered done.
The obvious application is without a sold foundation, everything will fall apart!
I could have purchased the most beautiful and expensive tile in Saint Vincent for the stage. But if the foundation was weak the tile would either crack, or even worse fall through!
In the same way the foundation of our life (the heart relationship with God) must be solid if the outer things such as character, and integrity will truly last.
Watching all of the effort those men put into that stage reminded me how little time we spend on the foundational part of our lives. We spend all kinds of time on fancy tiles to put on an incredibly weak foundation, and then are shocked when it falls through!!!
May the Lord help us pay more attention to our foundational relationship with Him than outer works.
Johnhwilburn.org 