Cliff, The Rock and the sand
- Jul 7, 2017
- 2 min read
Picture the scene; it is mid-June and it has been a warm summer evening at Eastnor Castle. Cliff Richard has just finished his outdoor concert. The crowds are walking back to their cars in a nearby field. The chatter is happy and relaxed; it has been an enjoyable evening.
Amongst the crowd are my wife and daughter. They know just where the car is because, when they parked, they took note of its position relative to a couple of trees and a floodlight. As they join the slow-moving queue to exit the field, they hear snippets of conversation from other people trying to locate their own vehicle.
‘Where is my car, where did we put it?’
‘It was behind a motorhome.’ But the motorhome was no longer there.
‘We were near the middle of the sixth row….’ With many cars having vacated their parking slot, it was impossible to tell where the rows had been!
Some people were looking lost and went to the marshals to see if they could help. The best these could offer was, ‘Wait until the end and see what’s left!’ Others, not so readily phased, were saying ‘Let’s do it systematically.’ This brought the response, ‘Okay, but should we split up or stick together?’ As time went on, a few people were becoming quite frantic, one lady waving her key fob and clicking it hoping to activate her car’s lights from a distance.
I imagine a number of people, intent and excited about getting to their seat in order to see Cliff, never gave a thought as to how they would find their way back to their car. Others did better and noted roughly where in the field they were positioned or what distinctive vehicles were adjacent. This latter group, however, failed to consider that they were looking to transient things for their orientation. Thankfully my wife and daughter made the two trees and a floodlight their reference point - things that weren’t about to move.
In the account above, the worst that could have happened would have been a departure delayed by a couple of hours or so. Of more lasting significance is how we each orientate our lives. What are our reference points, how strong and stable are they or can they move like shifting sand?
Money, sex, power, political and philosophical ideologies, government, friendships and relationships - as much as we may wish it were different - do disappoint us. They cannot ultimately deliver that for which our hearts yearn.
God presents Jesus to us, calling him The Rock. He urges us to receive him as our life’s foundation stone. While he isn’t, we are in danger of putting our life’s weight on shifting sand.