For
my seventeenth birthday, I did not have a big celebration. Instead, I
invited a few girl friends over to spend the night. Towards the
beginning of the party, before everyone showed up, a couple of friends
and I decided to go out and explore the old abandoned house that rests
on top of a steep hill about a quarter mile away from my own house.
The
house, pictured above, has existed exactly the way it is now since
before I moved into my home six years ago. It is only half-finished,
but it is filled with all sorts of interesting objects: faded
paintings, shower hooks, working toilets, formerly nice chairs, and an
expensive Kubota tractor. All of these things are inside of a house
that has no roof, and only partially-finished walls.
My
friends, Lauryn and Brently and I, found a gap about a foot and a half
wide between the building and the cliff face. It leads around the
entire house, and we spent a while exploring behind the building,
looking around and wondering why on earth anyone would build a nice,
two story home facing a breathtaking sunset each night, and then never
bother to finish the structure.
We
soon came across something about five or six yards away from the house
that brought us to a sudden stop. We were stunned into silence as we
stared upon the oddity that rested before us. It blew away everything
about the house that we thought was a mystery before.
There was an aging, wooden staircase that led to nowhere. Literally, nowhere.
It
is not uncommon for people out where I live to have ranch-style
staircases outdoors that help them better move around their property,
but the stairs always end up leading somewhere. This
set of stairs led about half way down the hill, and then stopped
abruptly. It wasn't like they were half built. They looked finished.
It was baffling.
Yuccas and weeds blanketed the earth right
below the bottom stair step, not that you would want to go down any
further, as the ground was far too steep.
Even
after my party ended, the lonely staircase continued to linger in the
back of my mind. This may sound strange, but the stairs remind me of
something that Jesus talks about in the Bible. No, He doesn't say
anything about a staircase that leads to nowhere, but He does mention
something that reminds me of this place in Mark 4:1-20, the Parable of
the Sower.
Mark 4:18-19
Still
others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the Word; but the worries of
this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things
come in and choke the Word, making it unfruitful.
I
am only creating a possible scenario here, but maybe the original
builders of this property started this house with exciting dreams of a
life in the country. Maybe they wanted a home overlooking the sunset.
Maybe they wanted to be able to see the stars every night, and smell
the grass when they walked out their front door.
But then,
maybe their dreams began to fade when the harsh reality of life set
in. Finances, job loss, other shiny things that begged for them to
purchase instead. Maybe they found a fancy condo in New York and
decided that city life would be better suited for their lifestyles.
Whatever
happened, this family must have begun the home with excitement, and
then the excitement somehow faded away, until the home was nothing but
an aging, unfinished structure, something that will sit on the face of
a cliff until it crumbles away into nothing. The stairs, the house,
all of it has become worthless, unfruitful.
Sometimes our walk
with Christ may become just like the staircase. We start out excited,
following His every command with pure joy. We build our relationship
with God a little more each day and we're happy about it. But then
other things come along- finances, a hectic life, a tragedy- and
Christianity doesn't seem to suit our life the way we want it to... it
seems much easier to focus on something else. We don't have enough
time for Him. We find ourselves taking a break from a lifestyle that
used to be lived out with eagerness and excitement. We keep moving
farther away until our relationship with Him is nothing but a crumbling
structure on the face of a hill, fading a little bit more each day.
I
encourage you, don't let your relationship with Christ become like
these stairs. Don't let it be unfruitful. Don't let it lead to
nothing in the end. Even when the excitement wears away, stay strong.
Continue the plan God has for you. Don't let your life end up
completely pointless, like useless stairs that will never help anyone.
