Foundations

Foundations are important. In the construction of a building, a strong and reliable foundation is a primary consideration. The function of the building, and location of the building, are important matters for determining the materials that are required for a foundation. Without attending to the matter of a proper foundation, further construction becomes a foolish—and risky—enterprise. Similarly, a meaningful and purposeful life requires a sturdy foundation. The materials of such a foundation include unconditional love, encouragement, and support. Other matters are important. They include education or vocational training, a safe environment for failure and learning from that failure, and career guidance or mentoring. Yet, the most important matter is knowledge of personal origin. Who are our parents? Were we adopted? What can we know of our heritage? Self-concept and identity are forged from this knowledge.

Here, in this passage from Isaiah, the people of Israel have lost their way. Their home, Jerusalem, has been destroyed, and they are a people in exile. Disorientation is a poor foundation for reclaiming and rebuilding a future as a nation. It is in this disorientation, this emotional and spiritual place of despair and hopelessness, that the prophet Isaiah speaks. The people hear that they were formed in the womb by God. This same God is the one who is the maker of all, who alone stretched out the heavens and spread out the earth. This demonstrated power of God will now reorder the world on behalf of Israel. Israel has not been left alone. More, as a people who were created, fashioned, and formed by God, they are a people who belong. A relationship is established once again with a powerful God—a relationship that continues even when we wonder about God’s presence or concern.

That we belong to God is to say God doesn’t belong to us. Allan Hugh Cole, Jr. shares a poignant metaphor he learned from Frederick W. Schmidt, “Acting as if God somehow belongs to us can have a direct effect on prayer and faith. For example, it can lead to our viewing God as a commodity that exists primarily to serve us and our self-interests, rather than leading us to serve God and God’s interest. Moreover, we can begin treating God as ‘a cosmic Coke machine,’ such that we merely need to offer God some sort of payment (i.e., good deeds, the right prayers, acts of kindness, various sacrifices), put in our requests, and expect to receive something in return from God immediately.”[i] This incorrect notion that God belongs to us is a poorly laid foundation that results in a faith that shifts in the difficulty, discouragements, and heartbreaks of life. Finally, it is a foundation that cannot sustain us.

A life of faith and practice of prayer that disappoints may be the product of a poorly laid foundation. Often, the poor foundation is a transactional relationship with God, as our above metaphor suggests. We barter with God—God, I will give you this if you give me that. Or the poor foundation of faith may be that we have cast God in our own image, rather than the other way around. We depict God as an extension of ourselves, our desires, our needs, and our political ideology. We want God to see the world as we see it; we want God to be a certain way. This is a foundation that negatively impacts our prayers and shakes our faith. God does not operate under our control. As the prophet Isaiah reminds us, we belong to God. The only foundation for a robust life of prayer and faith is one where we seek to know God, God’s dreams, and God’s aspirations. It is rebuilding a faith upon the foundation that we are created in God’s image.

Joy,

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[i] Allan Hugh Cole, Jr., The Life of Prayer: Mind, Body, and Soul. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press,2009) 15.