DAILY BYTE
A couple of seasons ago on the popular reality show ‘Survivor,’ one of the contestants spoke about the pressures she had faced:
“I had no idea that this was going to be as tough as it is. I have woken up in the morning and gone through an entire day wondering who I am. Things come out of my mouth in frustration and hunger and stress that, after they come out, I want to suck them back in, because it’s not the same thing I would normally say or do.”
One day your fruit will reveal who you really are for there is only so long you can hide it. I remember once saying to my mentor in frustration: “I hate who I become when I am stressed.” His reply was hard-hitting but nonetheless true, “How you act when you are stressed is part of who you REALLY are. The stress just means you struggle to hide it.”
And what will often bring these important moments of self realisation and revelation is the storms of life we all seem to encounter. Notice that the storm occurred for both the wise and foolish men, a reminder that storms are a life event that we all have to face at times.
The tremendous value of these inevitable storms is that they reveal to us where we are truly founded – what we have built the foundations of our lives upon.
The earlier tale of the fruit is spelt out more clearly by Jesus in the storm story. Two houses can be built the same way, with exactly the same materials, but when the crisis of the storm hits it will reveal where they are truly founded.
If your life so far has been all about what you can do, rather than about who you are, then you will probably struggle to hold everything up when you encounter a severe crisis. We see this time and time again within our society, most notably in the many Christian leaders who publicly collapse because they have not taken enough care of what is within.
However, for every famous person who collapses, there are many others, more anonymously perhaps, whose lives crash and burn with devastating effect to all concerned. For if we neglect our inner worlds, then we will not be able to sustain the weight of events and stresses that press upon us.
What do you learn about your life’s foundations from these stormy moments? It would be wise for you to carefully consider this question long before the storm clouds draw up above your life. For by then it may be too late to begin giving your inner world the focus it needs to sustain you through these tough times.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Great God, you are my rock and foundation. I commit myself to building my life entirely upon you, and ask that you would guide me in such an effort. Amen.
FOCUS READING
Matthew 7. 24-27 NRSV
Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell and great was its fall!
