The Wild Card!

To add variation to the game, card players sometimes designate one of the cards as "wild," meaning that when played it can be given any face value the player desires. The phrase has now entered our vocabulary and is used to refer to all unpredictable factors. In sports competition, there are entries who do not qualify by normal rules, who are granted 'wild card' status. And, yes, there are occasions when, to all appearances, life deals us a wild card!

• A year ago, millions of Americans thought themselves financially secure, investments growing in value, 401(k) retirement accounts at the ready. Then, the bottom fell out of the world economy and portfolios lost 40% of their value in just days!
• Remember that beautiful day, September 11, 2001? That sunny morning, 19 terrorists commandeered 4 airplanes in the Northeastern United States. In an hour their murder of thousands rewrote American history!
• Then, there are those much more personal 'surprises;' things like an unplanned pregnancy, an unforeseen job lay-off, a friend who turns his back, a health crisis.

These 'wild cards' in life reveal who we are! They strip away our pretenses, knock out our systems of control, and leave us vulnerable, don't they? Disciple, wild cards will come. That is why it is so critically important to cultivate deep faith when things are going well, when life seems to be 'normal.' If we wait until the crisis to try to learn to trust God, to build a foundation of faith, it will be too late. We will quite probably only increase our misery as we scramble desperately to find some place of security or comfort.
Jesus spoke directly to the necessity of preparing for the storms that will inevitably blow through our lives. First, He explains that a life of faith is so much more than knowing and saying the right things. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 7:21, NIV) He tells us to obey today, to work out the implications of living what we believe, right now.

He goes on to give us one of his stories to make the point. "Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." (Matthew 7:24-27, NIV)
Rain comes to the righteous and the unrighteous alike! One of the false expectations of many Christians is that they will be exempt from disappointment, financial problems, rebellious kids, or cancer! Jesus was clear that His disciples live as a part of a world where wild cards get played. What's the difference for the disciple? He has a unshakeable foundation.
Paul, near the end of his life, was imprisoned by the Romans. He did not think God had failed him, nor did he complain about how unfair the situation was. The solid Rock on which he had built his life was revealed. "I am not ashamed, (of being in prison) for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus." (2 Timothy 1:12-13, NKJV)
Are you building a solid foundation, day by day, choice by choice - so that when the rains come and the winds blow you will hold together and not crash?

__________________

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.

When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in Him be found!
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne!

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.

The Solid Rock
Mote, Edward / Bradbury, William B.

© Public Domain