Many people heard many things in church Sunday.

Many words, many challenges, many opportunities. Many invitations, many explanations, many ideas.

On one hand, all of the things that we heard further confuse our ability to obay. Every discussion is an opportunity for confusion as well as clarity.

On the other hand, today we have the opportunity to pick one thing and do it.

Just one. Out of all the messages, just one.

It’s not that they don’t all have value. It’s that Jesus talked about how to build, and as I read it, I think it starts with one thing. At a time.

Jesus says, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock” [Matthew 7:24].

A builder adds only one board at a time, one brick at a time. A builder fastens each piece to the previous piece, providing great stability. It isn’t enough to build a collection of boards, piles of brick. A full warehouse is not a finished house.

Obedience is what builds on a solid foundation. Doing what Jesus said to do. Listening and then acting.

And so I come back to where I started. All of the things we heard yesterday are piled in the warehouse, available, but not used. Our responsibility is to grab one board and put it in place.

Trusting was one of the things I heard. Trusting was one of the things I taught. Trusting that maybe I don’t have to keep all the possibilities in the air, doing none of them.

Trusting that maybe, by picking one and doing it, I can learn how to obey, a skill that Jesus says is like building on a rock.

But they all look so possible.