The Falling Bridge

By now we have all seen the pictures of yesterday's collapse of the 35W bridge in Minneapolis. Before we left for Reynosa, Janet and I crossed that bridge during rush hour. I can remember passing all of the construction equipment including huge cement trucks and feeling a little uneasy. I wondered what they were fixing. It looked to me like they were resurfacing the bridge deck. They were pounding out the old concrete and replacing it with new concrete. We all know how brutal winters can be on the roads. Like everyone else who was on the bridge that day, I shrugged of any reservations I had and continued on my way. I figured that the experts knew what they were doing. How wrong we all were.

In the conversations I have had with people today they all remark about the uncertainty of life. "You never know when you're going to die," they all say. And while that statement is true, my thoughts have been running in a slightly different direction. I've been thinking about the foundations that people build their lives on. How can we know that we are not only heading in the right direction, but that our road is safe?

Simply following the person ahead of you is not the right answer, nor is following a large group of people. 140,000 cars a day drove on that bridge. There is comfort to be found in the crowd, but not security.

The prophet Isaiah wrote this,

"The Lord will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure" (Isaiah 33:6).

The only solid foundation for life is the Lord God himself. He is the only one who knows the best and safest road for us. His Word (the Bible) and the Holy Spirit will guide us through life and cause our lives to be secure.

That doesn't mean that the road he will lead us on will be easy. Frankly, people yesterday would have been safer parking their cars, walking to the river, swimming across and hiking home. Others might have laughed at them, but who would have been right? Remember, Noah was right and everyone else thought he was crazy until their "bridge" collapsed when it started to rain.

I just want to encourage us to think about the foundation of our lives. Is it really secure? Only a life built on the Lord God and his word, the Bible, is secure. Are we building our lives on that foundation or are we simply following the crowd assuming that "everyone" must be right?