Building a Life ...

In a park on the beautiful island of Bermuda there is a rock hanging on a rope with a large sign beside it. The sign reads: "Weather Station . . . Check the Rock . . . If it's wet, it's raining . . . If it's moving, it's windy . . . If you can't see it, it's foggy . . . If the rock is gone, it's a hurricane."
Today we check the Rock . . . or better yet, to use the language of our text from I Peter, the Stone--the Cornerstone on which our lives are built.
We read, "As you come to him, the living Stone--rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him--you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says: ‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.'" (NIV)
Jesus is the cornerstone. It is familiar language to most of us.
WHERE DO YOU BEGIN BUILDING A LIFE? YOU BEGIN WHERE EVERY BUILDER BEGINS--WITH THE FOUNDATION--WITH THE CORNERSTONE. No building is any stronger or surer than the foundation on which it is built.
Some of you, perhaps, have visited the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy. Built from 1173 to 1372 this 12-story, solid marble structure began to lean even before it was completed. Quite significantly, the word "pisa" means "marshy land," which gives some clue as to why--after the first three stories were completed--the ground underneath the tower began to sink. Also--its foundation is only 10 feet deep! Scientists are now working feverishly to keep this massive structure in place. They report that the tower moves about one-twentieth of an inch each year, and is now 17 feet out of plumb. They further estimate that by the year 2007 the 810-year old tower will have leaned too far and will collapse. A famous, historical landmark will be gone--as will millions of tourist dollars that flow from this unique structure.  No building is any stronger or surer than its foundation.
Compare the tower of Pisa with its ten-foot foundation with the foundations of the great European cathedrals. Some of these foundations go down as far as forty or fifty feet. In some instances, they form a mass of stone below the ground as great as that of the visible building above the ground.  To build a great life is like building a great cathedral. You start with a sure foundation.
A seminar leader was speaking to a group of business students. To drive home a point, he used an illustration. He said, "Okay, time for a quiz." Then he pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouthed mason jar and set it on a table in front of him.  He produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar. When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, "Is this jar full?"
Everyone in the class said, "Yes."
Then he said, "Really?"  He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks.  Then he asked the group once more, "Is the jar  full?"
By this time the class was onto him. "Probably not," one of them answered.
"Good!"  he replied. He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in, and it went into all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel.  Once more he asked the question, "Is this jar full?"
"No!"  the class shouted.
Once again he said, "Good!" Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked up at the class and asked, "What is the point of this illustration?"
One eager beaver raised his hand and said, "The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard, you can always fit some more things into it!"
"No," the speaker replied, "that's not the point.  The truth this illustration teaches us is this:  If you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all." (1)
The expert was giving the class a lesson in time management. Put in the big rocks first. Make sure you have your priorities straight. Take care of the essentials before you get bogged down in the extraneous.
That is a good lesson in managing time. It is also a good lesson in managing life. Put first things first. Make sure your life is built on a strong foundation.
THE BEST LIVES, ACCORDING TO BOTH SCRIPTURE AND LIFE EXPERIENCE, ARE BUILT ON THE FOUNDATION OF CHRIST. Jesus is the Cornerstone. This is the testimony of both the Old Testament and the New. Isaiah wrote: "Behold I am laying in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone" (28:16).  Zechariah wrote: "From them will come the Cornerstone, the Peg on which all hope hangs, the Bow that wins the battle, the Ruler over all the earth" (10:4). Build your life on Christ.
What does that mean in practical terms?
IT MEANS, FIRST OF ALL, MAKE CHRIST THE MODEL FOR YOUR LIFE. Draw your values from everything you know about him. His love, his compassion, his acceptance and forgiving spirit. Build your life on values and truths that are time-tested, those values and truths that have become universally recognized as the foundation for a lasting society, those values and truths that flow from the life of Christ. Make him the model for your life.
Several years ago Oprah Winfrey got rid of her entire wardrobe. One woman bought a pair of Ms. Winfrey's four-hundred dollar shoes for five dollars.  Later that same woman told Oprah she was having a difficult time raising her children on her own, but then she added, "Sometimes when I feel I can't make it, I go in the closet and I stand in your shoes." (2)
For this woman, Oprah Winfrey is a model and an inspiration. She could do worse, of course. Oprah is quite a lady.  However, she could also do better. Millions of persons through the centuries have discovered that Christ is the only sure foundation. When we build our lives on Christ, we begin with him as our model.
WE ALSO BEGIN WITH HIM AS OUR MENTOR. That is, Christ is not only a dead, historical figure whom we admire.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ is alive in our lives here and now. So the foundation of our lives is not only a model that we copy, but a Mentor who dwells within us, guiding us and encouraging us daily.
Max Lucado, in his book IN THE GRIP OF GRACE, tells of his boyhood days when he and his friends would gather on the street each afternoon to play football.  One dad in the neighborhood, a die-hard football buff, would sometimes join them.  This dad always played for whichever team was losing that day.   Max Lucado writes, "His appearance in the huddle changed the whole ball game.  He was confident, strong, and most of all, he had a plan."  The kids, fired up by his leadership and emboldened by his plan, played with new determination.
Lucado makes the point that Jesus did the same thing for us.  He came to join the losing team, and his appearance in the game changed everything.  He was a leader who inspired hope, confidence, courage, and love in his disciples.  And he had a plan, a plan so outrageous and amazing that no one, not even his disciples, truly understood it at first. But they trusted him as their leader, and so they followed.  And now all of Jesus' followers can be sure that we are going to win this game in the end. (3)
What a wonderful analogy that is. We are playing the game of life. And a bigger, stronger, more confident player steps into the huddle as our ally, our coach, our friend. Jesus is not only our Model, but also our Mentor.
Is it important that Christ be our Mentor? Could not other people fill that void just as well? Up to a point, perhaps.  But there are areas of our lives in which no other friend is adequate.
A woman fought a long battle with cancer.  Her brother, Dr. Earl Wolf, made the trip from Missouri to Pennsylvania to attend her funeral.  While he was there, he spent some time leafing through his sister's Bible.  He found this handwritten poem tucked in its pages:
                     Often on the Rock I tremble,
                   Faint of heart and weak of knee;
                    But the steadfast Rock of Ages
                    Never trembles under me.'  (4)
When you are battling life's fiercest foes, you want more than a dead hero or even a live but inadequate friend.  You want the Rock of Ages. You want the precious Cornerstone on your side.  You want a mentor who is present and who is powerful.
JESUS IS OUR MODEL AND OUR MENTOR, AND HE IS THE MORTAR THAT JOINS OUR LIVES WITH OUR CHRISTIAN FAMILY.  When you are building a life you build it on the foundation of your faith. But you give added strength to that life when you form lasting relationships with people who care about you--strong relationships within families, with close friends and lasting relationships within the body of Christ, which is the Church. Notice in verse 4 of our text, we read,  "As you come to him, the living Stone--rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him--you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."
You and I are living stones of the house of God. A stack of stones lying in a field may have little value. But take those stones, put them on a strong foundation and join them with mortar and you can fashion them into a skyscraper or a cathedral. When we build our lives on Christ, we become part of a very special family--the family of Christ. Thus we find help in building strong lives through our relationships with others in his family.
In the fall of the year, Linda, a young woman, was traveling alone up the rutted and rugged highway from Alberta, Canada to the Yukon. Linda didn't know you don't travel to Whitehorse alone in a rundown Honda Civic, so she set off where only four-wheel drives normally venture. The first evening she found a room in the mountains near a summit and asked for a 5 A.M. wake-up call so she could get an early start. She couldn't understand why the clerk looked surprised at that request, but as she awoke to early-morning fog shrouding the mountain tops, she understood. Not wanting to look foolish, she got up and went to breakfast. Two truckers invited Linda to join them, and since the place was so small, she felt obliged. "Where are you headed?" one of the truckers asked. "Whitehorse." "In that little Civic?" one of them said. "No way! This pass is DANGEROUS in weather like this." "Well, I'm determined to try," was Linda's gutsy, if not very informed, response. "Then I guess we're !
just going to have to hug you," the trucker suggested. Linda drew back. "There's no way I'm going to let you touch me!" she said angrily. "Not like THAT!" the truckers chuckled. "We'll put one truck in front of you and one in the rear. In that way, we'll get you through the mountains." All that foggy morning Linda followed the two red dots in front and had the reassurance of a big escort behind as they made their way safely through the mountains.
Caught in the fog in our dangerous passage through life, we need to be "hugged," says Chuck Swindoll.  With fellow Christians who know the way and can lead safely ahead of us, and with others behind, gently encouraging us along, we, too, can pass safely. (5)
How do you build a successful life?  You build it on the rock. You build it beginning with a sure Cornerstone. You build it on Christ who is our model and our mentor and the mortar that joins us as believers together as a family--as living stones in his holy temple. ---------------------------------------------


1. Author Unknown, WIT & WISDOM, October 7, 1998.
2. Barbara Johnson, BOOMERANG JOY (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1998).
3. Max Lucado,  IN THE GRIP OF GRACE, excerpted in LET THE JOURNEY BEGIN by Max Lucado (Nashville: Word Publishing, 1998), p. 9.
4. C. Neil Strait, PASTOR . . . BE ENCOURAGED (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1996).
5. Charles R. Swindoll, GROWING STRONG IN THE SEASONS OF LIFE (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), p. 286.