What Is Your Life Built Upon?

Raise your hand if you have a phone. 

Now raise your hand if you have social media. 

Now raise your hand if you’ve ever seen something on your phone that has made you feel bad.

It’s insane to think how much phones have changed even from the time I was born. From VHS tapes to Netflix, it’s safe to say a lot has changed in a very short amount of time. And with those changes to these physical things also brings changes to our emotional and mental states. It’s a lot easier for us to get distracted. It’s a lot easier for us to put our self-worth into posted moments online instead of actual lived-out ones. It’s a lot easier to waste time. It’s a lot easier to compare ourselves than it ever was before.

There’s this video from a few years back of this woman at the mall who is caught intently looking down at her phone. She’s so intently looking down that she falls into the big pool of water where you throw your pennies and make a wish. 

And that is exactly what happens when we’re stuck in looking down at our phones. We get tripped up and can sometimes fall. We put our worth into what people say about us - how many likes we get, how many followers we have, how many people comment on our photos, how many texts are sitting in our inbox, what filters we can put over our faces to make us look the best. But that’s not how Jesus calls us to live. He doesn’t want us to hide behind that mask. He doesn’t want us to build our lives upon an unsteady foundation - the approval and opinions of other people.

But that’s our culture, right? Our culture is saying that if it’s not posted, did it even happen? Did you really go to coffee with a friend if you don’t post an artsy coffee photo on your Instagram story? Did you really go travel someplace if you don’t get a really sweet photo to post later? Are you even in a relationship if your Facebook status didn’t change? Our culture is constantly telling us to make a show out of everything. It’s a very selfish culture to be a part of. So we can become consumed.

There’s this video from 2014, and the guy in the video opens up with a statistic that the average human spends 4 years of their life looking down at their phone. Crazy, right? Well I did some updated math… I mean, we are in 2020 for crying out loud. And this is the research I came across: 

Americans spend an average of 5.4 hours a day on their phones. So if you are that average, and let’s say you get a phone when you’re 10 (the average age people get a phone), and if you live to 80 years-old (the average age people live to), that means you will have spent 15 YEARS on your phone!!

15 years spent looking down. 15 years of possibly building a foundation that’s shaky and shifty with trends and opinions and likes. 

So what I want to tell you right now is this: LOOK UP! There’s a whole world out there that needs you! Look up! Your self-worth is not measured by likes and followers and fire emojis and nice comments. And if it is, your self-worth looks like a shifting, shaking home. Feeling good one minute, feeling bad the next. One minute you’ll love the mask you’re wearing, and the next, you’ll hate it and want a different one. Take off the mask and look up! Set yourself in a solid foundation - one that is rooted in Christ.

And I know you probably know this… but phones and social media aren’t all bad. They can be used for good. But if your worth comes from these tools - because that’s what they are, they’re tools - if your worth comes from these tools, they then become weapons, and you have uneven and unsteady footing. You have to look up and set yourself in a solid foundation.

This is what Matthew 7:24-27 says: “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”

Imagine a house built on a solid, steady, firm foundation. Now imagine that same house built on an unsteady, sandy foundation, one that shifts and changes. If you’re looking above the foundation, I’m sure the houses both would look pretty good, right?

But then imagine a storm comes. And the one house built on the solid foundation stands firm, but the house built on the sandy foundation is destroyed.

And do you know what you do when there is a bad foundation? You get caught looking down. When you have a bad foundation, you get caught in looking down, worrying and wondering if your house is going to crash. But if your foundation is solid and it’s built firmly, you don’t waste your time looking down, wondering whether or not you’ll withstand the storm. You know where you stand, and you get to spend your time looking up. Enjoying what’s happening around you. Helping those alongside you. Living a meaningful and purposeful life.

Everyone builds their life on something. So what will you build your life upon? Are you going to hide behind your mask on your phone for 15 years of your life, having your emotions shift and change with your approval rating? Or will you build your life on steady rock and be able to look up and enjoy it?

Don’t let your foundation be built upon what people say about you online or what you say about yourself online or what you say about others online. Because the storms will come. And people will change their minds about you. And when those storms come, I want you to be able to look up, knowing that your foundation is solid - your foundation in Jesus.

But that’s the thing I mentioned earlier - your foundation is what’s underground, so you can’t see it from the street. Some people in your life aren’t going to get it. They’re going to want to look at things on their phone that they shouldn’t. They’re going to follow accounts and like photos they have no business looking at. They’re going to say things in group chats that shouldn’t be said. And they may not get why you aren’t doing those things too.

They’re going to wonder why you read your Bible. Why you spend so much time at church. Why you pray and talk to God. They’re not going to get it because they’re too busy looking at what’s above the foundation - they’re caught up in the exterior. Kind of like how we only see the good stuff on social media, right? The happy couples, the places people travel, the amazing accomplishments. But we know the foundation is the most important thing. It’s what is on the inside. It’s our solid foundation in Jesus Christ that matters. 

Tyler and I took a trip a couple of years ago to the Iowa State Fair. And when we got home I posted a picture, a super cute picture of us in front of the ferris wheel. But then the next day I posted a little reality. This is what I said:

“I’m sure many of you saw the picture of Tyler and I at the fair I posted recently. Yes, you can see that the experience was fun and that we both look pretty happy. But what you can’t see are the other real moments that happened along with this experience. You don’t see me crying a little that morning because I didn’t like the way my body looked before we left. You don’t see me getting annoyed because of his complaining that his feet hurt at the fair. You don’t see us driving an extra 40 minutes on the way home because we missed our turn…

I’m not perfect. He’s not perfect. And our relationship ain’t perfect. In fact, last night we had to sit down and talk through some of the things going on in our relationship. But ya know what? IT IS OKAY. You don’t have to have it all together 24/7. So quit seeing the perfected and filtered lives of people and comparing it to your own. Understand that we all have messes. And you can mess up too. IT IS OKAY. We are imperfect people loved by a perfect Father. So embrace the real. That is where true beauty lies.”

It is so tempting to see things - beautiful, amazing glimpses of peoples’ lives and feel like you’re not measuring up. Like somehow you missed the mark because you don’t have this amazing side gig where you post on your stories every day or somehow your voice isn’t heard as loudly because you don’t have as many favorites on your tweet. But the foundation for your life does not consist of these things. And if it is, it’s time to rethink your foundation. How will you live your life?

Will it be for the world? The shifting, changing, sandy world? Or will it be for Jesus? A solid, firm, set purpose and identity that He gives you?

I hope you want to build your life on the latter - upon Jesus. He was a man who knew His foundation. He didn’t get caught in looking down. He picked out the broken, messed up people. He looked up, saw needs, and fulfilled them. He healed. He mended. He walked with purpose. And at first the people loved Him. In fact the week they killed him was the same week they had been bowing down to Him earlier. That’s how the world is. One minute it likes you. And the next it doesn’t.

But Jesus knew His purpose. He didn’t care about his follower count. He only had 12. He didn’t care about their shifting approval. He looked up. He had His foundation set. But the world shifted and decided they didn’t like him anymore. So they killed him. But three days later He rose from the dead. And because of Him, we get to live eternally with Him in heaven - if we choose Him and build our lives upon Him, if we do what the Scripture says and listen and follow His teaching.

Obviously it’s not going to be easy. In fact, it’s going to be really, really hard. But I promise you that when you lean in and you choose Him over the world, and you allow Him to move in your life, trusting Him as your foundation, He won’t lead you astray. The things happening in your life now - the attention that others may get from what they post or what they do - it may not make sense now. But sometimes you can only connect the dots looking back. Know that Jesus is the connector. He is the only solid foundation for your life.

So what will you build your life upon?