All Other Ground Is Sinking Sand

I have heard this Bible story and various songs my whole life. The wise man who built his house on the rock stood firm and the house built on the sand went fast. The lesson is always that God is the rock and the world is the sand. Build on Christ and you will be secure. Build on the sand and you will be taken up in the tide. 

It is true. 

It is fact. 

It is unwavering. 

But, it had never clicked with me that this passage also applies to identity. 

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

Tonight, I am sitting on the couch all caught up in “growing my platform”. Posting quality content to attract followers, so that I have a tribe, so that I will be legit, my words will be read, and I will be successful at my craft. That I will make it in the writing business in my post college days. I will be secure. It’s all about me over here in this stressful and disgusting feeling pity party on the couch.

It is easy to get wrapped up on likes, comments, and watching my followers grow to measure my legitimacy as a writer.

It is easy to get wrapped up in dieting, exercising, and fashion to measure and achieve beauty. 

It is easy to get wrapped up in the validation of men, women, and peers to measure our likability as individuals. 

It is easy to look at everything else instead of what God says to find worth, value, and acceptance. 

Identity is where we find our worth. It is where we find our brave. When our identity is placed on the sands of our passions, looks, and likability we will sink. 

Tonight, is a great example, but so is most of my life. 

I have tried to find worth in starving myself and buying clothes I do not like; trying to be the “desirable girl”. Growing my hair out, even though I like it short, and wearing make-up, even though my skin is super sensitive, all to be seen as beautiful. Staying on my phone and laptop for hours interacting with people to get myself and my writing seen; to be validated in my passion. Jumping through hoops to get noticed by others so they will compliment me on my “good job”, or my “awesome gifts”. All of it so I will be worth knowing, liking, and being with. 

All of it gets ripped away by the tide and leaves me grasping to all that I can get my hands on, because I want to be valued, wanted, needed, and belong. 

My value does last, just not in sinking sand.

He's solid rock under my feet, breathing room for my soul, an impregnable castle: I'm set for life. My help and glory are in God. So trust him absolutely, people; lay your lives on the line for him. God is a safe place to be. Man, as such is smoke, woman as such, a mirage. Put them together, they're nothing; two times nothing is nothing.

Psalm 62:6-9 (MSG)

Your value is set, on the solid rock of Christ. 

You are chosen, loved, adored, and protected. You are not just liked, but accepted, forgiven, set-apart, and wonderfully made. You are royalty. You are beautiful. You belong. You are not alone. You have been given great gifts to be used. You have been given communities to love. You have been given much and are still being given good gifts. Your identity and worth are secure in Christ. 

No one can take away who you are and becoming. No one has the power to diminish who God has made you to be. 

On the solid rock we stand. All other ground is sinking sand. 

We are not just trying to build a life founded on what God says is true. We are fighting to see ourselves the way God see us, to believe that God is who He says He is and we are who He says we are. 

You and I will be shaken by storms of criticism. We will feel the force of the tide of being liked. And at times we will drift away in our efforts to earn love. We aren’t perfect. But, I hope we will look up, stop sinking, and dwell on our foundation; rest on the Rock. 

God is right here with you always. Your value and identity is concrete in Christ. His words are right before you. The Rock is always under you. He has never left you. 

- Hannah