What if we lived each day like everyone and everything around us was just borrowed for a short time? What if we allowed only God to fill the deepest of voids in our lives so that everything else that came into our lives after that would be just a gift? What if we removed our deepest of attachments with people and replaced them with full reliance on God?
When two people fall in love they become so wrapped up in each other that sometimes it's hard to know where one ends and the other begins - I believe that is the true meaning of two becoming one. But, a great many relationships are based on the invalid notion of being together forever and never leaving each other. Even parent-child relationships have an air of this; many children are told that their parents will always be there for them and will never leave them - this idea may be giving us a false sense of security at the time the words are spoken, but those same words cut deeply when the very person who promised you forever vanishes from this life.
Imagine for a moment if we took a different approach to relationships. If we think of our heart as a glass, most people begin filling their glasses from birth with their parents, family members, friends, classmates, boyfriends, girlfriends, co-workers, children and so on. Now, imagine a storm of life, a tragedy, an accident, a death...when the glass is tipped and begins to spill its contents you must react quickly to prevent everything from spilling out. Some lesser tragedies may not affect the content level of your glass very much such as losing a person who was not very close to you, but what if you lost one of the people at the very bottom of your glass, someone who you believed to be your foundation? How do you even begin to pick up the pieces of your spilled heart and go on without your foundation?
Now consider this...what if your foundation was not a person? How would your life be different if your ultimate foundation was built on someone who would actually never leave you? What if your foundation was built soley on God?
Imagine God as wax; once the wax is poured a glass and allowed to cool, all the shaking in the world will not move the wax or cause it to fall out. Now imagine this...if we first filled the very bottom of our hearts with God and His Word and then layered all of the other people in our lives on top of that firm foundation, no matter what storms would come our way, even if our glass was turned upside down and completely emptied out, we would never be truly empty because our firm foundation is stuck at the bottom of our heart.
What if we realized the people we love are just borrowed for a short time? What if we viewed each one of them as a traveller wandering through our lives, always anticipating their departure? How would this change the way we treat people? How would this change the way we react in tragic situations? How much easier would it be to pick up the pieces of our lives after a storm of life knowing that the foundation of God that is stuck in the bottom of our glass will never go away?
Storms will never cease to blow into our lives; and tragedies will always try to get in our way. But those things do not determine the outcome in our lives...our reaction and the foundation of our lives is the only determining factor in our future. Tragedy can leave us devistated if we choose to allow it; storms can destroy everything we have worked for including our resolved to move forward if we succomb to its powers. But, if our hearts are built upon a foundation that cannot be moved no matter how strong the winds might blow we can choose to stand up, dust ourselves off and keep pressing toward our goal.
I'm reminded of the song I Will Not Be Shaken by Tommy Walker. Here is my favorite version of this song done by the choir at my church, Mount Paran Church, Atlanta, GA. Enjoy!
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