Of rocks and sand clods - part 1

One day a man was sitting on a muddy river bank. He was enjoying being out in nature, allowing his thoughts to wander.
He picked up a smooth, black pebble, played with it in his hands and then tossed it into the flowing stream. Through the clear water, he saw the pebble sink quickly to rest on the sandy riverbed.
He then scooped up a small handful of wet soil and tightly squeezed his hand shut. He opened his hand, re-positioned the sand with his thumb and forefinger and squeezed his hand shut again. He repeated the process until he was satisfied that he had formed a solid ball of soil. This too he tossed into the water, but unlike the pebble, it broke up into the thousands of little individual sand particles it was before. The particles drifted and scattered in all different directions.

I think the contrast between the pebble and the sand clod is a great analogy for us to test what it is in life that holds us together.

The sand clod is where many of us find ourselves – we are held together by external things; things of this world. We rely heavily on the things of the world to keep it all together, to be happy; to be stable, functional human beings. A comfortable job, a safe car, companionship with friends, a love relationship. Some or all of these things become our number one and we rely on them for our emotional wellbeing. They are like the man’s hand that holds us together. The problem comes in when we leave that man’s hand, when we get thrown into the river or we are dropped on the floor. We break up into a thousand little pieces. We realise the hard way that the things in which we placed our trust to live a great and fulfilled life are uncertain and unable to really bind and galvanise our lives into something that is sustainably unbreakable. And then we spend months and sometimes years picking up the pieces of our life that lie scattered all over the riverbed.
I am not disputing the fact that these things are important, because they are important. I am questioning how important they are to us in relation to how important they should be according to God’s Word. A pretty good test is to write down in order of importance what you could least afford to lose, or what you could not bear to think about losing. Your job? Your wife or girlfriend? Your social group? Your car or house? Your physical appearance? If anything on your list is above your relationship with Jesus, then that is a pretty good indicator that you place more of your wellbeing in that than in Jesus.
The question many may ask at this stage is, “but how can I enjoy these blessings and good things if I don’t value them or don’t look to them to be my strength?” and “wont I lose them if I don’t make them number one?”
The answer to this question is firstly, that these things are all blessings from God and we are to enjoy them, but if they become more important to us than Him - if these things take preference over Him in the way we live our lives - then we are idolising them, which is sinful.
Secondly, all these things are going to fade away, be destroyed or lost. And when we do lose them (because it is but a matter of when, and not if, we lose them) then how will we deal with losing the thing that we feel we cannot afford to lose?

In contrast, if we look at a pebble, when the man picks it up it is already in a solid, unbreakable state. It does not require his hand (anything in this world) to make it whole or complete because it is so already. It is a rock because it is held together by a mixture of chemical bonds and particles on the inside. It’s strength comes from being held together by the layers that form around its core. For us, this core translates to our hearts and spirits. If our hearts are firmly rooted in our relationship with Jesus, if it is Him from whom we draw strength, if He is what we rely on to hold us together from the inside, then no matter whether we are in the hands of the world or we are tossed into the water, we are held firm by what is inside - something that can never be taken from us. The Holy Spirit within us.

Be blessed, make music, live with passion for Christ
NS