The Rock Is A Hard Place

In Jesus's Parable, the wise man built his house upon a rock and the foolish man built his house upon the sand. Building a house on a rock symbolizes following the covenant path and trying to live a righteous life. Building a house on the sand symbolizes basically any other kind of lifestyle. Building on a rock is definitely going to be harder. It will require more sacrifice and less time to do the fun things we would rather be doing. But the wise man built his house upon the rock not because it would help him to avoid the rain and the flooding and the whirlwinds and hail stones, but because he knew the rock would help him to weather the storm and remain mostly in one piece. Sometimes we feel that following the Savior and obeying the commandments and giving up on a lot of the seemingly fun and exciting things in life should be enough of a sacrifice. We think that just because we worked harder to carve out our foundation into the rock instead of just plopping our house down right on the sand, then we've done the hard thing and we should be exempt from more hardship. God shouldn't punish us once for forbidding us from doing the fun worldly things and then punish us again for making us also go through hard times just like everyone else. Having a firm foundation means trusting God and knowing His plan and that no matter how many storms, how many shafts in the whirlwind, how many times the devil himself comes raging into our lives, God will not let our house fall if we've built it on his rock. We may have to replace some shingles that were torn off and we may need to throw on a fresh coat of paint or get rid of the furniture that was destroyed by water damage, but the house was not swept away by the storm. We don't have to start from scratch. If the storm is getting fierce and all seems lost, it still makes no sense to leave the rock. We may feel like we don't deserve to pass through such a terrible storm, and that may be true, but leaving the rock, leaving the covenant path will not make the storm any less fierce but will only make the effects of the storm all the more devastating. Obedience to the Lord's commandments may seem foolish when the fierce winds are beating at us mercilessly, but obedience isn't half so foolish as disobedience, as giving up the firm foundation, the only thing that is holding us together through the storm. Following the Lord never meant having an easy life, but it is easier than not following Him. Life is not free of pain, but there is less pain. It is not all peace but there is more peace. The rain falls on the just and the unjust, the wise and the foolish, but the wise and the just get to keep their footing in the storm, while the unjust and the foolish are washed away.