The East coast has had a rough couple of weeks. First they were jolted by a magnitude 5.8 earthquake that caused minor damage, but major anxiety. Then a week later hurricane Irene barreled ashore causing extensive damage, flooding, and power outages.
Watching the news coverage from those events got me thinking about Matthew 7 where Jesus talked about the wise and foolish builders. One built his house on the rock and the other on the sand.
As I thought about those two builders, it struck me that the consequences of their decisions didn’t become apparent until after the storm came. Up until that point, I’m sure their houses looked almost identical. Once the storm hit, however, their earlier choices were revealed for what they were: either wise or foolish.
Applying this to your money, think about the daily decisions you are making with things like your saving, spending, debt, and giving. Those are foundational decisions that might not seem that important while the sun is shining, but when the storms come—and the storms will always come—your prior choices and decisions will either be a firm foundation or shifting sand.
Almost every week I council people who are having financial troubles. The temptation is to look at the problems they’re having and blame it on the storm; to look at the ruined house on the beach and say “Look what the storm did.” Most often, however, the real culprit isn’t the storm, but the decisions made prior to the storm. Christ tells us to hear his words and put them into practice if we want to be like the man who built his house on the rock. I think we can safely assume that his statement is just as applicable to our financial decisions as it is to other areas in our lives.
With that in mind, I encourage you to look at your “financial house” this week. How will it hold up when the storms hit?
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