Speaking of painful events, once I learned how to handle the sudden pastoral request for “something soft”, I encountered the next level – “Choose Your Own Hymn” night. At least I knew it was coming, but knowing that the music director was about to let just anyone sitting out there in the congregation pick a hymn for me to play didn’t help my nerves any. I figured most of the hymns would be the old favorites, which I knew fairly well. I could play “Amazing Grace”, “It Is Well With My Soul”, and “How Great Thou Art” almost with my eyes closed.
But who knew that one of the teenagers would pick “God of Earth and Outer Space”!
I struggled through it, and have since come to enjoy the challenge of “Choose Your Own Hymn” nights. Sometimes being surprised can be fun, and gives me the opportunity to learn a new hymn I’ve never heard before.
God teaches us how to handle sudden surprises in life too: the sudden chance to witness to someone, the sudden opening of a door of opportunity for your career, an urgent need to be a friend to someone in pain. With experience, God lets us know that he will be there for us, and won’t let us flounder. He will guide us in the words we say, and He will help us know what to do. With a solid foundation we have built up over the years, we can be confident that we can be the tool God wants us to be. As we gain experience in reading His Word, we will build a repertoire of scriptures to have available to share with someone in need. Or to remember for ourselves when we need it.
I have talked about the foundation we can build for ourselves by learning about God and growing in faith, but God has laid the ultimate foundation for our lives by sending Jesus to die for our sins. Our attempts at foundation-building, either for ourselves or for another person such as our children, are meaningless without the underlying foundation of Jesus Christ. So then, let us make sure to build our foundations faithfully and carefully, not repeating the same mistakes over and over, but learning correctly as we apply the Word of God to our lives.
By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work.
1 Corinthians 3:10-13