I am the kind of guy who enjoys to ramble (You'll hopefully notice that the word 'ramble' is cleverly hidden in the web address of this here blog). Get me started on a subject I love to talk about, and I'll ramble for hours. A prime example of that: Primary. For those who are unfamiliar with the Mormon faith: On Sundays, while the adults are in Gospel Doctrine and Sunday School classes, and the teenagers are in Young Men's/Young Women's, the children under the age of 12 are gathered together for Primary. Often there is a lesson taught (referred to as Sharing Time); additionally there is a Singing Time (you can guess what you do during Singing Time). It's this particular part of Primary that I'd like to talk about for a moment.
Back in the day, I was one of the loudest singers in the entire Primary. I could belt out those tunes with about the same grace and pitch as a sick whale. Despite the fact that my singing was horribly off-key, I still enjoyed Singing Time. As I grew older, though, I started to become a rebel in Singing Time. That's right: Once I was eleven, I didn't sing most of the songs. Nope - instead I mouthed them. Pretty rebellious, huh?
There were a few songs that I did consistently sing and not mouth, though; one such song was 'The Wise Man and the Foolish Man' (based upon Matthew 7:24-28). As I think on the words of that song (and try to remember all of the cool little hand motions that go with it), I am also reminded of a scripture that my religion class studied recently: Helaman 5:12. It is one of the oft-quoted and beloved scriptural gems of the LDS people:
"And now, my sons, remember, remember, that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."
The beautiful, seemingly poetic imagery of this scripture is punctuated with numerous applications, life lessons, and spiritual warnings and whisperings (One such gem is what I would call a multilingual wordplay: The Hebrew word tsur means rock, or foundation; it sounds somewhat similar to the word 'sure' in English. Cool, huh!).
My religion professor went on to point out one of these life lessons from Helaman 5:12. He pointed out that the word 'when' occurs twice in this verse - both times in conjunction to the storms of temptation and the devil. The word 'if' can be found just once - "[A] sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall" (emphasis added).
Ultimately it is our choice whether or not we build upon the Rock of our Redeemer - even Jesus Christ, God the Son, the Savior of the World. Ultimately it is our choice to choose to accept His words and teachings of love, repentance, forgiveness, brotherhood, and hard work - or to be like unto the foolish man of both the Savior's teachings in Matthew and the Primary song that I would sing.
In the parable from Matthew, we read the Savior's words:
"Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
"And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock" (KJV Matthew 7:24-25).
Notice that there are two different words used to describe what should be build upon the rock: house and foundation. A foundation obviously precedes a house - but once you have laid this foundation, it is only natural that you would build a house on top of that sure, solid foundation (in this case, a foundation of faith).
Said Isaiah:
"Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste" (KJV Isaiah 28:16).
And then we read the words of Solomon, son of David:
"Even to prepare me timber in abundance: for the house which I am about to build shall be wonderful great" (KJV 2 Chronicles 2:9).
What house was Solomon building? The same house that you and I are building spiritually. Later in that same chapter we read:
"...Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, that made heaven and earth, who hath given David the king a wise son, endued with prudence and understanding, that might build an house for the Lord, and an house for his kingdom" (2 Chronicles 2:12; emphasis added).
Says 2 Corinthians 6:16:
"[F]or ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."
We are striving to become like our Savior is - we are striving to build within ourselves a spiritual temple of holiness, founded on faith in God, and built with the timbers of His teachings. This seems like a daunting task, but as I was reading through these scriptures I remembered something of great importance: Our Savior is a carpenter. He was born and raised in Nazareth, and taught the woodworking art by his foster father, Joseph. Not only was He a Master of carpentry in mortality, but in our very lives and in our very souls He can play this role as well. And once our house, once our temple unto our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ, is built, we can then go forth and serve and share!
I enjoy thinking of some sort of community that lived along a rocky coastal shoreline. There was surely once a man who dwelt in this community, who built his house upon one of these solid rocks - and when a winter storm blown in by the sea-winds came, his house stood firm, unshaken, immovable. He was delighted, overjoyed, and ecstatic about this revelation, and continued to fortify, strengthen, and expand his house, until it was nigh unto a mansion. The storms came, and his house withstood; there were minor cracks and leaks in the walls and roof, but he busied himself patching those up.
And then one day he looked out. His neighbors and friends didn't know how to build their houses upon rocks - perhaps they weren't even aware it could be done. So, for the longest time, they had been building their houses upon the sand some miles away from the rocky cliffs. The storms came, and battered and buffered these individuals and their homes. When such epic and ferocious winds blew, there was no hope for their sand-founded houses - they blew away, or were washed off in the floods of the billowing tides.
The man who'd built his house upon a rock knew that he could help these others. He left his home for a time and journeyed amongst the people living in the sand dunes, inviting them to come back with him to the rocks. "Danger? Oh yes, there is danger; there are always typhoons, hurricanes, and gales, whether you live on the cliffs or in the dunes. But where I go, there you will find safety from these storms. Let me teach you," he said to the multitudes gathered roundabout him.
He taught them how to build solid foundations on the rock itself, and then to build a house on top of those foundations. The storms would then come and expose whatever flaws or cracks that they might have initially missed during the original construction; easy would these be to patch up once they were discovered.
And so this coastal community moved to the cliffs and built their houses on rocks, leaving behind the thankless, merciless, and ever-changing sands of yesterday.
So it is with us, my friends. We can choose the Rock of our Redeemer, or an unsteady foundation that will likely blow away in the next storm that life will throw at us.
It's our choice; and once we make it, we're never alone in building that house, that temple, on that rock, within ourselves. We have an expert to guide us, help us, chasten us, love us, teach us, perfect us, and patch up any cracks in our walls.
We have a Master Carpenter standing right beside us.
May God be with you till we meet again, my friends.
Sam
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