“She was the rock of our family.”
I wrote that statement down as I met with the family of a woman who had recently passed away. As we prepared for the funeral, different family members began to share stories and examples about how their mother, grandmother, sister, and aunt had been the one who held their family together and was someone they could always count on.
Maybe you know someone like that in your family or circle of friends. They are the person you can always count on. The one who always shows up. The call you can make day or night when you need someone to give you good advice or just listen. They are reliable. Steady. Consistent. When your life seems up in the air, they are down-to-earth.
THE ROCK OF AGES
Throughout the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, many people talk about God as the Rock, or “my Rock.” In Psalm 18:2, David, the king of Israel writes:
“The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my Savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety.”
This is one of the dozens of references to God as the “Rock”. Biblical writers explain that because God is their rock, their feet won’t slip because they are standing on solid ground. The reality is that we all plant our feet somewhere, but the question is, where are your feet planted? Is the foundation you have chosen for your life solid as a rock?
Many of us have had the experience of having something we thought was a solid foundation for our lives turn to sand and wash out from underneath us. It may have been a job or career path that would provide you all the security you would need in life, until one day, it was gone. Or maybe you relied on your health until that foundation started showing some cracks. Maybe it was a relationship – he was your rock, or she was. Then things changed and they were gone.
We all plant our feet somewhere, so where are you standing?
WHEN ROCKS MATTER MOST
A century or so ago, a ship in a storm was dashed against the rocks in Cornwall, at the South West corner of England. A fifteen-year-old sailor swam to safety on an offshore rock. He climbed up and waited all night until he was rescued the next morning. A reporter interviewed him and commented, “You must have been shaking all night as you clung to that rock.”
“Yes,” the young sailor replied, “I trembled all night with fear and cold.” Then he added, “But the rock never trembled once.”
That was what David meant when he called God, “my Rock.” He believed that God would always be there for him, that He would be David’s fortress, protection, and shield. When you read David’s story, he went through some stuff. Wars on the battlefield. Betrayal. Struggles with his own lusts and desires. Failure. Rejection by his own family. There were times when all he could do was try to encourage himself in the Lord (1 Samuel 30:6) and write songs where he poured out his fear, his anger, and his pain. But what kept him from giving up was the hope and security he felt in God, his Rock.
Maybe that’s the same hope that Edward Mote had when he wrote the song, “The Solid Rock” in the early 1800s. Mote was a cabinet maker and lay minister who liked to write songs of worship for his church. Mote’s parents were pub owners and many of his songs used the music of popular pub tunes with new lyrics. One day, as he went to work, Mote began singing to himself:
“On Christ the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.”
From there, he composed the song which has been sung in churches for almost 200 years.
What Mote knew when he wrote that song, and what David knew thousands of years earlier when he wrote a psalm (song) about the Rock, is that all of us need a firm foundation in our lives. All of us need a solid place to stand. All of us need a place to turn in times of uncertainty or adversity. Throughout history, individuals, groups, and governments have attempted to create those places, with pretty mixed results. But, as the Bible reminds us, God remains the same, “yesterday, today, and forever.” That is the kind of rock to build your life on.