When you were a kid, did you ever build sand castles? I did, and it was fun to watch my kids build them too. They invested many hours in setting up plastic soldiers and stick artillery for their imaginary wars. But the castles and forts didn’t last long. Other kids running around on the beach kicked the towers over. Waves, sun, and wind eroded them into shapeless lumps of sand.
Do you ever feel that futility with the things you have tried to build in your life? Have you experienced the bitterness of business failure? Have you tried multiple careers and never quite found the groove? Are there a lot of broken relationships in your past? Is it a struggle to find things in your life that you are proud of?
What may be missing is your reference point. When your measuring stick is yourself, your wealth, your ego, your prestige, or your comfort and pleasure, you may indeed feel as though your strength was spent in vain.
When God is at your core, when He is your central reference point, everything changes. “Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him” (Philippians 3:7-9).
