Trinity and Humanity

In the Piedmont region of North Carolina there is a brand new summer camp for young people called The Rock. It’s located in the beautiful area around Hanging Rock State Park and words cannot convey the intense and deeply intimate way we have encountered the Triune God of Grace this week. As I write this blog I am sitting in the Chapel. The campers are all out at their activities. Some are at High Ropes, some are at Paintball, others are at Arts and Crafts, and the rest are doing a myriad of other fun activities. All week we have been talking about Matthew 7:24-29 where Jesus says that if we build our house on the Rock it will stand but if we build it on sand, the storms of life will tear it down. In the wake of the tragic storms in the past decade we have all seen what powerful storms can do to a weak foundation. Sand is surely one of the weakest foundations upon which we can build but a good solid foundation will support a physical house even in the toughest storms. 

Jesus is the only foundation there is. There is no such thing as a counterfeit foundation. The Apostle Paul wrote, “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.” (NRSV) You see all week the campers have been taught about the Rock- Jesus Christ and have been encouraged to build their lives on him. While at the outset one might worry that we have been pushing these kids back on themselves, our camp director Stephen and our Chaplains Rocky and Linda have been very careful to articulate to the campers that in terms of a sandy foundation all we are ever able to do is pile sand on Jesus who is the One Foundation. He, the Cornerstone, has been in place for us before the beginning of the world and is holding us up even when we fall!

Jesus will not be moved. He will not be shaken. And in our feeble attempts to “build” our lives, either on sand or on the Rock, we are ultimately building on Jesus in the end. If we make the choice to heap sand on the Rock and build atop such a weak, anemic structure our building is destined to crumble when the hard storms of life assail. The good news is that if we are so lost in our darkness, so blind, and so wrongheaded as to actually build on sand, the Rock, Jesus Christ, is still there with the Father’s unflinching heart to catch us when it all comes tumbling down.

So why would anyone build on sand? I don’t know. What I do know is that in one way or another we do it all the time. Our saving grace is that Jesus is there to help us pick up the pieces after the storms have blown it down and the floods have washed it away. Building on sand does not make Jesus go away. It cannot change the Triune God who Is. Building on sand is surely a fool’s errand… good for us that the Father, Son, and Spirit have already put in the Foundation that holds all things together and will never let us wash away or disappear from his love.       ~Bill Winn