Sandcastles

I get an idea. I get excited. I start planning. I begin to envision how I am going to make it work, and even plan out the details. I see what people are going to think of me, how they’re going to be impressed.

Maybe its how I am going to become better at a sport. How I am going to train and get back in shape, and even eat right. I’ll go research various websites and come up with a training plan and even try it… and then I’ll grow bored and quit when I realize it wasn’t what I was expecting.

Maybe its something to fulfill my desire to be successful. In high school, it was how I was going to go to state in One Act (competitive theater) and track. My best friend and I wrote our own play and pressured everyone to work hard enough to be the best. After rehearsal, I would go run only to get up the next morning and go work out as well. I neglected debate because it wasn’t as glamorous and I didn’t think it had a shot of getting me to state. What happened? I ended up quitting track because I got tired of the workouts, getting knocked out at district in one-act, and making it to state in debate.

Maybe its something more recent. Where I become passionate about advertising and when a friend tells me about a new business, I begin to envision how I will advertise for them an be responsible for their success. How I can know enough right now, have enough experience now, to be able to do by myself what it takes a full agency of people to do. And it isn’t until I get into it, that I sink some money and a lot of time and pride into this fantasy that I realize I am in way over my head and have to swallow all of that and step down.

I hate that taste. The taste of sand. You see, it is in these moments where I get excited and begin to envision what people will think of me… that I lose sight of God. I don’t commit some huge awful sin where I go sleep around, rob a bank, and kill someone, but I did do something worse. I broke the first commandment. In Exodus 20, God is giving Moses the ten commandments and the very first thing He says is, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (NASB.)

In those moments where I am dreaming of being successful and everyone being envious of me, I am taking God down from the center of my life and placing myself there instead. I am building a castle to myself that I think will allow me to reach this place where I will be happy.

I call it a castle, but its called different things by different people. Some people call it what they deserve, others call it hard work, my favorite is calling it the American Dream. It’s all sin. Now I’m not saying that you should slack off and never try for anything. That is being stupid and a bad steward of the gifts God has given you. What I am saying is that when you are in those moments where you are working towards something, take a minute and question why exactly you are working. Is it the LORD your God? Are you working for His glory? Or are you working for your own? Are you working so that others may look at you and say, “look at him” or “look at her,” and “look how successful/beautiful/popular/whatever they are.”

Now you might be thinking that we idolize those things because they work. The American Dream has given hope to millions of people and has made America the leading power that it is today. But my question to you is; has it really? If so, then why are we looking at the American dollar fail against the Euro? Why are we bickering at politics as Americans decide who they wouldn’t mind voting for the least? Why when OPEC says jump, we say how high? Why are our marriages falling apart and our education system declining? Why is our castle taking on water?
Jesus gives us the answer to this question in Matthew 7:

24"Everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25"And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. 26"Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27"The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell--and great was its fall."

But there is hope, even if you have been like me and built so much of your life on the foundation of sand. As I write these words, I have spent the past few hours working on a new dream of mine. I have recently left the Young Life organization and have felt God calling me to do more with advertising and the people in it. I am creating a student organization whose objective will be to connect Christians in the advertising major and profession. When God laid this on my heart, I became excited. My old habits started to take over. I began to imagine how successful this organization could be and how prestigious it could become. And how I could make the same impact by myself as I did with an organization that has been around for years and has thousands of members. It could have easily become about me, and it still easily can. That is why it is my prayer to slow down and even stop. To not get caught up in getting this thing off the ground and instead take time to inspect my foundation, hear the words of Christ, and act on them. After all, Deuteronomy 32:4 calls God, "The Rock!” and says, “His work is perfect, for all His ways are just; a God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is He.” And that is something on which I can build.

His,

Dustin L. Taylor

School Analogy

So this is just a short analogy that God gave to me while I was reading Romans chapter 10. Paul is talking about Christ and the fulfillment of the law, making the overall point that the law can never lead to righteousness. Now, a common (and valid) question that comes from this is: If God gave us the law, but the law could never give us righteousness, then why did God give it to us? Is He that cruel?"

But stay with me for a minute. How many of you have gone to college? Or even been through a senior year of high school? Think about all of the years you have spent previously in school, getting you ready for that moment. How absurd would it be to leave you without any formal education until you are 17 or 18, and then throw you into college?! No one would logically agree to that.

Then why would we expect any differently from God? The law was given to us, not to achieve rightousness, but as a study guide. We weren't ready to understand that God could send His son to die as a sacrifice for mankind, we didn't understand the idea of a sacrifice or why it would be necessary. So what did God do? He sent us to primary, middle, and junior high school. We lived for years with the law and understood that when we failed to uphold it, we must offer a sacrifice.

The law was never intended to serve as a path to rightousness. So why treat it like it is?! You wouldn't try to ride a bike into a lake instead of a boat. Then why do you try to live right and play nice, and expect to get into heaven. I promise you; you will sink faster than if you had taken then bike into the lake. Instead, put your faith in the sacrifice for which we have been prepared.