The Ramblers Chronicles: Cracked Foundations

I’m sitting here this afternoon thinking about cracked foundations. Probably because there is a repairman upstairs ripping parts of something as we speak. You see, some years ago I rented a house and the owners hid a crack in the kitchen flooring from me until the renting deal was final. When I found it and confronted them they refused to pay for the repair. I eventually let it go and prayed it would never be a problem. I’ll throw a rug over it, I thought. After all, that’s what the previous owners did. Everything was fine until weeks later, the crack began to spread until six tiles were cracked and the problem began to seep out of the kitchen and into the room.

The problem had grown to a place where I could no longer ignore it. It would no longer fit conveniently under a rug, the tile was cracked because the foundation of the house had cracked and the person who originally laid the tile hadn’t put a protective sealant down to prevent the tile from cracking right along with the foundation.

How like life, I thought to myself. And relationships. Sometimes we build relationships right on top of cracked foundations. If I can just hide these cracks, we think to ourselves, I can pretend they aren’t there. Everything is fine until something shakes the foundation and it is proven faulty. The cracks in the foundation result in cracks in the relationship. Sometimes they are repairable. Other times they aren't.

What are some faulty foundations we can build relationships on? Here’s a short list:

▪We want someone cool to like us so we lie about our likes and dislikes to fit in.

▪A cute guy begins showing us attention so we try to appear as someone we’re not to keep him interested.\

▪Our friends at school think being a Christian is lame so we tell them we only go to church because our parents make us.

▪We aren’t allowed to attend certain types of parties so we lie to our parents and say we are spending the night with a friend so we can sneak out and go.

Cracked foundations. Dangerous ground. It’s all just a matter of time before those cracked foundations get rocked and more damage is done.

The thing about a cracked foundation is that it’s a broken foundation. We can’t expect a broken foundation to sustain weight and pressure. When life happens broken foundations only become more broken—unless we put the time and effort it to actually fix the problem instead of trying to hide it.

Do you have any cracked foundations in your life that need repairing? Do you have some relationships in your life that you may need to rethink? Are there new relationships you are in the process of building that need solid foundations?

I would love to hear your story.