Stand Firm

"If you do not stand firm in your faith,
you will not stand at all."

Isaiah 7: 9b NIV


My husband snapped this shot a few days ago while he and the boys were hiking from their campsite to a fishing hole. It makes me wonder about the people who originally built this structure. Did they finish it? Did they ever live in it? Why did they leave the area? Did they go on to build something more permanent in another location?

I recall from my reading of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books that log cabins were always planned to be temporary structures until something more suitable could be built. Has something that was supposed to be temporary in my life, instead lulled me into a stupor of satisfaction? The fact that I'm not at ease about many things should prove to me that this is not the case.

As I've been reading Michael Bunker's series on Off-Grid Living, this photo and verse were quite sobering. His writing is pretty radical for this suburban gal. I want to be realistic, but I don't want to use the excuse that my husband and I are too old to make a wholesale change in our lives. I pray that we come to uncover how to be faithful and pleasing to God.

(An aside: In the original Hebrew, this verse is a play on words, which makes for difficult translation. Some commentators say that the NIV reflects the intent of the pun quite effectively.)