My Foundation ...

Monday, July 15, 2024. What or who is the foundation of my life? Is it work, the things I do? Is it a particular state of myself? Is it friends? Is it talent? Is it my family, my wife or husband? Is it my country? Is it a particular group of people I belong to? Some people place their identity in the middle, as a kind of important foundation for their life.

When you are very enthusiastic about something, it can appear as important part of your life. It can even be the foundation of your feelings, of your self-worth, of your identity. Being someone who always is enthusiastic about science and about the systems we build, I know this approach quite well. We have been proud on our achievements, that we build very good forecasting systems for the earth system. We have put in a lot of time and brain and effort.

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A biblical Viewpoint …

But the bible tells us to calm down a little bit and look at our life and our enthusiasm in a different way. It is good to be enthusiastic about things. But they should not take us hostage. They do not define what or who we are. With all what we do we should be based in God, the eternal living God. It is misleading, if we base our life on work, achievements or success. It is misleading if we build it on people or anything else than God himself.

11 For no-one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. (1 Cor 3, 11)

The story about Jesus is touching this point of what defines us. It touches the question of the foundation of my life. In Jesus, God has come into this world. In Jesus, God has opened the door for me to enter a community which will prove to be a firm foundation for my life. It is Jesus himself who is this foundation. Why?

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Jesus as Foundation …

First of all, the bible claims that Jesus is God himself, who became human. This is, of course, a quite breathtaking claim. You might, at first, think that it is a mad claim. Is there a God? Who is this God? And why would God become human? It seems to be a crazy story. But is it?

You will soon realize that the biblical stories touch the basic questions of mankind. They touch the question of our existence. What is a human? What are our needs, our desires, our targets?

The biblical texts touch the questions of identity as well. Who are you? We will need to dig deeper into the different texts, if we want to answer this question. But for today let me just summarize the biblical claim that God only can fill your heart, your deepest desires. God only can be your home, the place where you find eternal peace, an eternal resting place for your life and all what you are. Only God can do that, since he created you for exactly this type of community.

And God is there, a fantastic God. That is part of this story. God wants this relationship to us. He wants a relationship of trust and intimacy, of truth and love. In Jesus God makes this type of relationship possible, that is the prophetic message of the Old Testament and the actual story of the New Testament. Jesus wants to be your foundation. Let us discover, what this actually means and how the bible describes its components and layers.

Have a great day! (Roland Potthast)