The Weatherproof Life
“So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say? I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it. It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against that house, it stands firm because it is well built. But anyone who hears and doesn’t obey is like a person who builds a house right on the ground, without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will collapse into a heap of ruins.” Luke 6:46-49 NLT
Is your life weatherproof?
An easy way to know is to compare your life to the simple instruction Jesus gives in this passage: Come to Me, listen to my teaching, and follow it. Come. Listen. Follow.
Notice that there were a lot of people doing the first part. They were coming to Him and calling Him Lord.
When we first moved to the South we noticed that at about 10:00 a.m. each Sunday morning all the garage door openers would engage, open, and a loaded minivan would back out and head for church, (some in a bigger hurry than others). At that time something like 76% of adult Americans considered themselves “Christian” on surveys. I don’t know what the number is today, it could be higher or lower, but it makes you wonder.
Since the United States of America has traditionally been viewed as a Christian nation, many people tend to equate being an American with being a Christian. The same might be true in Greece if you are Orthodox, or Italy if you are Catholic. But landmasses don’t have belief systems, people do. America is no more Christian than a Buick is a pigeon.
People are Christian, countries are not. And of all those minivan’s leaving the neighborhood each Sunday morning, I imagine there were some occupants going to worship Jesus, listen, and follow. While some percentage just went out of habit, or tradition, without much personal buy-in. In other words, people that “call Him Lord, Lord, but don’t do what He says.”
Coming to Jesus, and calling Him Lord might qualify you as a Christian, I’m no one to judge, believe me. But stopping there won’t make your life weatherproof. Jesus says as much in this passage. A weatherproof life is one that is occupied by Jesus and the things of God. One that is fully surrendered. A life of personal relationship with Jesus, of constant, sacramental awareness of what God is doing, and saying. It is a life lived in His presence, with a deep and sturdy foundation loving God, and loving people.
“If you love me, keep my commandments.” John 14:15 NKJV
When we come to Jesus, listening to His precepts and directives, and set our course to follow them, we discover that the commands are not burdensome, as we might expect, but they are gifts, graces for our lives, to help us navigate the narrow path. A way to live in peace and grace in spite of any circumstances going on around us, or even things happening to us or our loved ones. Keeping His commands will make our lives weatherproof—able to withstand any storm, not for ourselves and our promotion, but for the life of the world and the glory of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
