You Found Your Center — Now Keep It.
“It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.” — Noel Coward
After hurricanes, tornadoes, or earthquakes, you might see a house or building standing alone. Are you going to be the person who survives the natural disaster?
People admire the person who can walk through the storm and not be shaken.
It may appear that the person who walks through without any concern or damage does so by sheer will. What people often don’t see is the intensive preparation that is done far in advance.
Most people don’t see the sweat, the blood, the tears.
When we know what we want to do in life, we have a solid foundation from which we can build and expand. When we build our house on the rock rather than on the sand, we should be able to sustain the storm. We should be able to withstand whatever force approaches us.
We found our center but we need to work every single day to go deeper. We need to dive deeper into the person that we were created to be. We need to look ourselves in the mirror and tell us the truth.
If we committed to exercising but we pressed snooze instead, we need to be honest.
If we wanted to read for 30 minutes but watched tv instead, we need to be honest.
We decided earlier who we were, we need to go deeper every day, not get pulled into stagnancy and normalcy that society tries so hard to seduce us towards.
“It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.” — Noel Coward
Becoming More
Ask yourself the following question and then pause. Sit in silence if you can and reflect on the person that you are becoming.
“What do you need to do so that God can change you into a person in whom He can see His own image reflected?” — Anne Graham Lotz
We already thought about this a little bit but it’s worth repeating. There are going to be distractions, storms, natural disasters, manmade disasters, people who don’t want us to see success. What are we going to do about it? Sydney says it best — we need courage.
“Have the courage to be ignorant of a great number of things, in order to avoid the calamity of being ignorant of everything.” — Sydney Smith
Of course, now the question forms… where does courage come from when you feel weak? Your foundation.
When we started, we had bricks — but only a couple. How did we set our foundation and where?
As we add to the foundation and we go brick by brick by brick, we must continue to be intentional. Then when there are days that we do not have the strength to persevere, we can rely on the foundation that was set.
Is your foundation in the sand or is it on the rock?
“‘Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.’” — Matthew 7:24–27 NIV
You found your center — keep it.
“Christians should be known to be calm and poised in the face of difficulty or failure. This may be the most telling way to judge if a person is drawing on the resources of the gospel in the development of personal character.” — Timothy Keller
Join my weekly newsletter to see all of my writing here.