Weathering the storm
A house built on a solid foundation of rock will come through a raging storm still standing firmly in place. It can't be uprooted because it's thoroughly grounded.
In living as in house building, a sound basis ensures stability and endurance. A career based on unselfish motives, for example, cannot be undermined by greed. A marriage anchored in fidelity can't dissolve on account of moral weakness.
Jesus instructed his disciples to build their lives on the everlasting rock of Christ, Truth. They were to follow his pure example by being spiritually minded - humble, holy, unselfish, loving. Such Christliness would see them through the severest of trials and enable them to emerge from difficulties unscathed.
''Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine,'' he told his followers, ''and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.'' n1
n1 Matthew 7:24, 25.
We might ask ourselves, ''What have I chosen as the premise of my life? Spirituality or materiality?''
Spirituality, being the expression of God, Spirit, is a solid, impregnable foundation, something we can always depend on. It is the very substance of the Master's teachings. ''The supremacy of Spirit was the foundation on which Jesus built,'' n2 writes Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science.
n2 Science and Health with key to the Scriptures, p. 138.
On the other hand, materiality is entirely shaky ground. It appears to be substantial, but it is really quite the opposite - variable, vulnerable, evanescent. Human opinions, philosophies, theories, and beliefs, springing from an essentially material view of life, may sometimes hint at truth. Ultimately, though, they are as unreliable foundations for living as sand is for building.
On the other hand, the Christ, the divine nature and power that Jesus so fully expressed, remains constant, ''the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.'' n3 It will never let us down, never disappoint. The healing activity of the Christ in human lives is forever available and unaffected by the vicissitudes of mortal existence. The spiritual truths of God and man, revealed by the Christ, stay eternally intact, ready to be accepted and demonstrated by each of us.
n3 Hebrews 13:8.
The allness and goodness of God. The oneness of God and man. The ever-presence of God, divine Love. These are unchanging truths we can trust. Spiritual sense, the inherent capacity we all have to understand God, reveals the things of Deity as solid reality, though material sense appraises them as intangible. Prophets, apostles, and above all the Master proved the supremacy of God through healing. Today, through the teachings of Christian Science, we too may rely unreservedly on God and His Christ and experience the blessing of spiritual healing.
We may have wondered concerning a particular challenge, ''Will I be able to make it through this?'' The turbulent elements of matter-based thinking, manifest as sin, illness, and death, can appear very threatening at times. Yet if we're turning wholeheartedly to God and genuinely striving to demonstrate more of the divine nature, we're on solid ground. We can't fail.
Of course, this doesn't mean we can sit passively, waiting for the storm to pass. We need to pray conscientiously, to stay persistently with invariable Truth and reject the material lies. We need to realize man's immutable harmony and perfection in God, and refuse the mortal view of man as an unstable, finite personality or an imbalanced biological organism. This will not only see us safely through the floods of fear and suffering; it will bring them to a stop.
A life that is God-centered, spiritually based, is secure. It's founded on the rock. As wise builders, can we settle for anything less? DAILY BIBLE VERSE As the whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked no more: but the righteous is an everlasting foundation. Proverbs 10:25
