While eating lunch yesterday, the conversation turned to the Dallas Cowboys and their losing year. I don’t watch football, but I do observe people and follow news stories. Injury to the quarterback Tony Romo, and various other problems have plagued and stalked “America’s Team.” ….but there is a much deeper problem with that team, and very few will speak up about it. The pure and unvarnished truth is, the team is a reflection of the owner, and no amount of money, beautiful stadium, famous coaches, talented quarterbacks, nor media hype they acquire, will ever change the tottering foundation of what once had been a very strong foundation. It is a team that was shaken, brought on by deceit from the beginning by the owner when buying the team from another owner whose integrity also was in doubt. The honor that the current owner always wanted is non-existent. For as I said yesterday, it has always been about buying with money what he never built on the inside, and that cannot be purchased with money. Integrity.
“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Psalms 11:3
“Providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.”
II Corinthians 8:21
As we continued, the discussion drifted into schools, students that are cheating their way into universities, congregations in error, businesses and homes in trouble, and I said the same as I did about the football team. If we have no foundation in our lives, built upon the immutable laws of God, homes, states, individual lives, and a nation will fail. It matters not what it is, nothing can endure without a strong foundation of honesty, integrity and justice.
“How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? ye shall be slain all of you: as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence.” Psalms 62:3
Looks can deceive is certainly true, whether it be a football team, a house that was built, an individual that looks great on the outside, dresses properly, but no inward character nor integrity. If any of these is weak, tottering, leaning, tilting, then the foundation is crumbling, for it had no pillar of support to begin with. “For what a person becomes tomorrow he already is in character today.”
“And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was found upon a rock.” Matthew 7:24
“We’re breaking from the foundation,
Just like the old crumbling bridges,
The rain pours, as the water rises,
Wreaking the post with every drop,
Rough winds shake every nut and bolt,
Right out of its place,
We are just like every disaster,
The calm before the storm, is
always when we fall.” ~Unknown
Eileen Light