Built to Stand

“Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain.” Psalms 127:1 
No one could have guessed that years ago the world trade center would disappear from the New York Skyline. We seem to be threatened at every hand with impermanence. Things that we thought would last don’t. Job security is constantly threatened—if not from layoffs and shutdowns, then from disaster or drought.
George Boschke was the famous engineer who built the gigantic sea wall to protect Galveston, Texas from floods that had brought disaster to the city. From Galveston he went to Oregon to build railroads in an undeveloped section of the state. Boschke was in a camp forty miles away from the nearest railroad when an exhausted messenger rode in and handed a telegram to his assistant. The message said that the Galveston sea wall had been washed away by a furious hurricane. The assistant dreaded handing the telegram to his boss. Boschke read the telegram, smiled, handed it back and said, ‘This telegram is a black lie. I built that wall to stand’.
He turned and walked away and went about his work. It turned out that the message was based on a false report. True, there had been a hurricane as severe as that which had blooded the city before, but Boschke’s sea wall had not been moved. It stood firm. “I built that wall to stand,” said Boschke and went smiling about his work amid rumors of disaster.
God is determined to grow character in us. He does this through adversity and pain. Character is forged in the fires of life, not on the mountaintop! God want to build a life of permanence. He wants to be able to say of us, “I built that life to stand”.
-Pastor Dino Griffin