Lessons from the three little pigs

Yesterday RN, EN, and I went to see the gingerbread house displays at Hyatt hotel. All the pieces were nicely done and they were all so creative. There were Harry Potter quidditch game inspired gingerbread house, toy story houses, Charlie brown theme, the Grinch themed , and many others. As I admired each one of the display, one of the ones that caught my eyes was the one based on the story "The Three Little Pigs". For those of you who are unfamiliar with the story, it's basically a story about three little pigs building their own houses. The first little pig built a house out of straw, the wolf came wanting to eat the little pig, so he "huffed and puffed and blew the house down". The second little pig built a house out of sticks, the wolf came and he "huffed and puffed and blew that house down" as well. Then the third little pig built his house with bricks. The wolf came wanting to eat the little pig, but he could not blow the house down no matter how hard he huffed and puffed. Now most us grow up listening to this story. We all know the moral of the story, don't take short cut, spend time and hard work on building a strong foundation so that when danger comes, all the hard work will pay off.

When I was thinking about this story, I was reminded of another story. This story though was told by Jesus in the bible as recorded by two of the apostles, Matthew and Luke. Jesus said:

"Therefore 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 stream 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.

The moral of the story is the same. Jesus is not teaching us how to build houses, He is teaching us how to build our faith and our spiritual life. Jesus reminded us that it is important that we spend time building a strong foundation in our faith so that when we encounter trials, we can withstand the temptations and frustrations. Let's face it, as part of life, we will face situations that will make us just want to throw up the towel and give up. We will meet people who will be like the big bad wolf that just want to huff and puff and blow us down. We will face the storms of life that makes us feel like we are drowning and we can't find anything to hold onto. If our foundation is not built on a solid rock, we will be swept away or we will fall down with a great crash. Now how do we build a strong foundation? Jesus made that pretty clear too, we need to put into practice all the principles and lessons we learned from the bible. This include study God's words, use our gifts in serving Him, worship and praise God, spend time in prayers...

I think for most of us, this is something we know. But knowing is one thing, doing is another. I find for myself, my spiritual life fluctuate. Some days I am diligently laying the bricks to build a strong foundation, other days I get a little bit lazy and I mix in a bit of straws and sticks. But I am reminded that we some times need to be our own building inspector and evaluate different areas of our life. Some times we need to be critical with ourselves so we can get back on track building that foundation.

In the end, anyone can build a house that will stand firm when the sun is shining and the wind is still, but it's the storm that will truly test the foundation of the house. So let us not build sand castles that will be swept away by the waves, let us build our house on the rock Jesus Christ!

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." James 1:22