Finding and Forming Faithful Foundations

How'd you like that? An alliterative title! Gotcha hooked now don't I?!

I'm going to do something a little different today: I'm going to write a blog about myself. I mean, I technically do a lot of that already but I usually just use myself as the subject because if I directed them at particular individuals, I'd look like a big(ger) jerk. This blog, however, is genuinely directed at me and while you may not want to read something intended to my self, I encourage you to do so because I believe it to have value. I wish I would have remembered to put it into practice because it would have saved me a lot of trouble in the long run. With that being said:

I recently took a look at myself and was confronted with the possibility that I was not who I was supposed to be. I don't mean that I'm disappointed in who I am. I just mean that as I lived my life, something crucial was missing. I wasn't sure what it was at first, but as I thought about it, I began to catch on to a theme: I had no backup plan for my life. All that I had been building my life upon was temporary and when those things left me, I would have nothing left to hold me up. I would fall.
It was at this point that I realized I needed to rebuild from the ground up. When you build your foundation out of things that crumble and/or leave you, the things that you've built on top of your foundation will fall too. It's inevitable. I needed a new foundation; one that was permanent and unchanging. One that was like...God! (Actually, one that was God in case you thought I suddenly became a pluralist.)
So, here I am--rebuilding. With God as my foundation, I can use other things to build my life up. Some of these things may be what I previously constructed my foundation out of and that's ok; just because they are not what I am built upon anymore doesn't mean that they aren't important. For me, one of these things is friends, which can be helpful in keeping me on my foundation. I just need to be sure that I don't make them my foundation. While my friends are great, I have to accept that there may come times when they won't be able to help me and sometimes there may come a time when they do more to tear you away from your foundation than build you up. While it stinks to think about having to end a friendship, I know that sometimes change isn't as bad as it sounds. Besides, what house doesn't need a little remodeling from time to time?
Something I need to remember about my foundation is that I don't control it. There are things that I am going to want to put in my life that my foundation will not support and it is important that I accept this when I am in the building process. Think of houses that are built in earthquake zones. You're foundation is there to hold your house there safely, but if you build your house the wrong way or use the wrong materials, it will fall when put to the test. For my own safety, I need to remember to stay within the boundaries of my foundation. It can be the hardest part, especially for me*, but it is one of the most essential.
All in all, I think the notion of rebuilding has been a scary thing because I knew it wouldn't be easy. It's like getting a shot when you're a kid. You're super scared on your way to get the shot because you just know it's going to hurt like crazy, but once you get it you realize...it did. But now the hardest part is over. Now I just need to keep building.






*It has been said that I have control/authority issues.