"An Unleaning Faith"

“An Unleaning Faith”

This past May Karen and I went on a tour of Italy. Beginning with our arrival at Rome (minus our luggage which found us early the next morning) we saw beautiful and historical sites in Rome, Florence, Pisa, Turin, Lake Como (including an hours’ boat ride), Milan, Verona, Venice (where we sailed the canals in a gondola), Bologna, Ferrara, and Assisi before heading home from Leonardo Da Vinci Airport in Rome. We brought home many pictures and fond memories but wish the viruses that traveled back with us had stayed in Italy!

One of the highlights in our travels was the Leaning Tower of Pisa. (There are actually ten such structures throughout the country—we saw the ones in Venice and Bologna as well—but Pisa is the best known.) It was built as the bell tower for the city’s cathedral between 1173 and 1372. It began tilting shortly after construction started because the foundation went down only ten feet into unstable soil. The same flaw caused the two other such towers we saw to shift, making repairs necessary over the centuries.

As we viewed the Bologna landmark we remembered Jesus’ parable of the two “contractors” at the end of His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:24-27). The wise man built on a rock while the foolish one did so on sand. When the storms hit the house on the rock withstood the wind and rain while the one on the sand collapsed. He then said putting His words into practice brings endurance in life’s struggles but ignoring what He says gives no stability when the bad times roll.

In His Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-23) our Lord told how seed which fell on stony ground had no strong roots. He likened this to people whose faith is so shallow that it “leans” and doesn’t sustain them in difficult times. The Apostle Paul didn’t want to see this happen to those under his care and challenged them: “...Just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to live in obedience to him. Let your roots go down deep into him and draw up nourishment from him, so you will grow strong in faith….” (Colossians 2:6-7, NLT, emphasis added). As our faith is based on the sure foundation of Christ and His Word (see Ephesians 2:20) it will remain unleaning despite the circumstances. I want this kind of stability, don’t you? To do so, “Let the word of Christ dwell in (us) richly….” (Colossians 3:16).

 

Grace and Blessings!

Jim McMillan