Family Crisis
Think your way around the room where the saints gather on the Lord’s Day. Over here there is a family who’s income is $800 a week and their outgo is $1000. There are two children in one family who, according to their Dad, are “failures.” “You’re stupid…why can’t you be more like your sister?” The lady in the back just found out a tumor tested positive…Sam and Louise had a nasty fight last night…one that broke the camel’s back. Each is thinking about divorce. Last Monday Jim learned that at week’s end he has no job…Sarah came to church this morning trying her best to cover the bruises from a beating she received at the hands of her drunken husband. The Smith’s found out their infant girl has a hole in her heart. That teen over there feels like he’s being pulled apart by his parent’s expectations which pull one way and his peer group and his glands pulling the other. The lonely, the dying, the exhausted, the confused, and others at the mercy of crises and forces beyond their control…they’re all there. You can travel down the pew of every church…..and find a broken heart. And often, a broken family.
The Chinese symbol for crisis is actually a combination of two symbols: One that means danger. The other means opportunity. A crisis is certainly a threat. A danger to our understanding of how life operates. But it is also an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to do a reset of how we are living…how we are functioning. It’s an opportunity for us to ask ourselves the question, “Is the Lord really building this house, or are we laboring in vain…?” Is our foundation really God’s Word, God’s truth, God’s wisdom? “By wisdom a house is built….” (Proverbs 8)
Jesus had some important things to say to us about how our families are to be built….What our foundation is built upon…what we are to do BEFORE the crisis comes, BEFORE the threat becomes a reality, BEFORE the storm hits….(Read Matthew 7:24-27) EVERY HOME IS BUILT ON SOMETHING. Jesus compared the foundation of our life and of our home to two possible scenarios. You can build your house on sand or rock. You can build your family on shifting realities or on that which does not shake. You can ground your home and family in wisdom or in foolishness.
Jesus is saying with this THE CHOICE IS YOURS TO MAKE.
What will your choice be?