DAY 98 - THREE LITTLE PIGS
ZACH ATWOOD, YA EVENTS & OPERATIONS TEAM LEAD
“If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work.” 1 Corinthians 3:12-13
Fun fact: did you know that the first publication of the “Three Little Pigs” was released in 1840?
If you didn’t have a childhood you might not know this story, but the gist is this: three pigs each build their own house to live in for protection and life. The first pig builds his out of straw, the second builds his out of sticks, and the third builds his out of stones and bricks. Now the first pig builds his the fastest and then enjoyed what the world had to offer, the second took a little longer but still jumped in and enjoyed the offerings of the world, but the third took a long time because of the materials he selected to build his house out of. The first two mocked the third piggy, but when a bad wolf came around, he easily destroyed the house of both the pig with the straw house and the pig with the stick house. Who’s laughing now piggies???
Similar to this story, when Paul writes this message to the church at Corinth, he uses this metaphor of building materials when it comes to our relationship with God and how we build our life with Him.
Paul explains that we all build our house on the same foundation of the cross and on the salvation of Jesus Christ, so what we build from there does not take away our salvation and our eternity with Him. But, Paul then goes on to say that we as Christians build our homes (relationship with Him) on that foundation (salvation) on our own (1 Cor. 3:10-11).
In this season of life, one that’s already shaky, uncomfortable, mentally draining and (insert your current emotion here), the stability of your relationship with Him is being tested.
I don’t know about you, but I’m seeing areas of my life that I thought I trusted God with falter, I’m feeling anxious in areas I thought were well built, and I’m struggling to be at peace because parts of my relationship cannot handle the COVID-storm! If you’re experiencing the same feelings as me, then we need to reevaluate how we’re building our homes!
So the question for us, what materials are you using to build your relationship with Him? Straw, twigs, bricks, diamonds, gold, etc?
Are we comfortable with building our relationship on a weekly(ish) church message? Maybe some light Bible reading when we’ve got the extra time after the latest Netflix binge? A couple of Instagram clips while we’re scrolling? These practices, though at its core are good, cannot support a house when the storms of life come.
Young Adults, let’s start rebuilding our relationship with our Father. Let’s start getting into His word, exploring His truth, and begin living our His way so we can build homes that stand strong no matter what season of life we find ourselves in!