When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. (Luke 6:48)

A building manager discovered a crack in the wall on the forty-second floor of a tall building. He called an architect to come and determine what the problem was. On the day of the architect’s arrival, the manager waited long past the appointed hour, but the architect did not meet him on the floor in question.

A search of the building turned up the architect in the sixth basement. The manager was livid. “What are you doing down here when the problem is on the forty-second floor?” he demanded.

“The crack may be on the forty-second floor,” the architect answered calmly, “but the real problem is here in the sixth basement.”

It seems that one of the maintenance men in the building had decided to build a garage at his home, but did not have the money for materials. So he began chipping bricks out of the wall in the sixth basement and smuggling them out of the building in his lunch pail at the end of the day. Removing bricks day after day finally took its toll and the crack appeared on the forty-second floor.

Without a solid foundation, the best superstructure is in jeopardy. Those who try to build a life on something else besides Jesus Christ might as well be building on sand. Eventually, “cracks” will appear. Especially when adversity comes, life begins to crumble.

Build your life on Christ; when the storms come, you will stand strong.

Ron McClung works at his denomination’s world headquarters and lives in Fishers, Indiana, with his wife, Carol. They have two sons and nine grandchildren.