The Sinking Corner Post

You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.'  But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.  If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.  And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.  (Matthew 5:27-30)


You know that house that Jesus says we're all building...that one that is either being built on the storm-ready rock or on the shifting sand?  Well, imagine a house that just has one corner set into that mud or sand and the rest on the rock.  What will that mean for the house?  At first, it might be OK.  The strong foundation under most of the house might make the less stable corner pretty inconspicuous.  But then what happens when a big gully-washer comes?  That corner post starts to sink or lean and the strain put upon the rest of the house causes other things to bow or crack.  Or maybe there's not even a big storm that comes through, but you notice that over time that corner ends up receiving the responsibility of a piano placed in it--piano's are heavy but they're not a big deal if everything is solid underneath.  Well, over time, that corner begins to sink, the roof starts to pop, and eventually a supporting beam of the house splits.


What happened?  There was a corner in the wrong place, "doing" the wrong thing, slowly taking the whole house down with it.  What needed to be done?  That corner needed to literally be removed--that's right; no more square house.  Now that process would not be an easy or convenient one.  It would mean setting braces on that rock foundation to hold up the walls attached to that corner.  And it would mean building a new wall with two new corners set on solid ground.  It's going to look funny at first, but over time, as the builder establishes that house in other ways and maybe even constructs an addition on the other side of the home--a side where there's plenty of rock to build out onto--some will begin to look at it and say that it's a work of art and that it's the kind of home they would like to visit and model some of their own construction after.  The owner might take them through and show them the old cracks and strains...the "scars" in the home from when the house had that bad corner so that others could learn from that mistake and see the wisdom in cutting that corner away, challenging as it was at the time to remove it.


Jesus told his listeners that it was better to perform an amputation on one's life than that to let what was damaging set the entire course for one's eternity.  With Jesus, it was always all or nothing.  He pointed to the Word of God, and as He lived it out and filled it in, said, "Going all in with Me is worth the loss of life and limb."  Be careful here...remember that lust or greed or anger are all matters of the heart and don't have to lead to their physical actions of fulfillment like adultery or theft or murder.  The heart is enough to cause that sinking corner that destroys the life.  Wrap the arms of your heart around Jesus.  Set your feet upon His.  Cut away anything that keeps you from doing so.  May He be behind every motivation of your heart today.