Our house has been sinking. We’ve seen worrisome cracks and gaps during the last couple years, but it’s probably been longer. Our soil has a lot of clay, there used to be a stream through the back yards when this was cattle land, and we’ve had some drought during the last few years.

We now have 10 brackets under the foundation along the back and side of the house. There are piles driven down about 40 feet. My work list includes building steps by the back door, building a deck from pieces of the one I took apart, working with Nancy to level the dirt, and eventually repairing some interior walls.

I’m telling you about this because my work list no longer includes worrying about the house sinking and walls cracking.

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When I was a little kid, we sang one of those kid songs with kid motions. We built a house fist over fist. We made the rains come down and the flood go up. It was a fun song.

One day, I realized that it was wrong. Oh, the wise and the foolish parts were right. But the last verse goes like this (with the repetition removed):

“So, build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ
And the blessings will come down.

Oh, the blessings come down
As your prayers go up.”

That not what Jesus said.

What he said was more like this:

If you listen to all the stuff I just said, really hard stuff, and you do what I said, you will face storms, but you will have strength. If you listen and then you walk away from here and you don’t do what I say, but you build structures on your own choices and decisions, you are going to face storms and you are going to have nothing.

It’s not a metaphor about prayer or about blessing or about formulas. It’s a metaphor about learning a wise way to live.

And maybe, we can shore up ill-grounded houses by tending to the foundation rather that constantly worrying about the storm.