Infrastructure

INFRASTRUCTURE
(noun) The basic physical and organziational structures and facilities
(e.g., buildings, roads, and power supplies) needed for the operation
of a society or interprise.


"The infrastructure problem is huge - and it's growing.  The American
Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) estimates that the nation faces a
$2.2 trillion infrastructure backlog.  One of every eight bridges is
"structurally deficient", and 85 perecnt of public transit systems are
struggling to carry the growing number of riders.  As ASCE President
Blaine D Leonard puts it, "We are still driving on Eisenhower's roads
and sending our kids to Roosevelt's schools."

I first started thinking about this subject after the recent tragic
train crash in Pennsylvania.   If you don't take care of the roads,
the bridges, the buildings, they will break down eventually.  A lot of
the roads and bridges were never meant to carry the load that they
have going across them each and every day.

I'm not trying to get you to stay in your house in fear!  Instead, I
want to talk about a different infrastructure.

When you get married, you build something together - a new life.  You
take the raw material of two lives, and you begin to forge ahead into
the future.  You make plans - blueprints of where you want your life
to go.  You add kids, a home.  Pets.

All of these things you must take care of - guarding your heart,
protecting your children, caring for your pets.  Your house.  Your
yard.  You make repairs as they are needed.

Then comes the separation or divorce.  There may have been cracks in
the infrastructure, insidious as termites eating the foundation of
your home.

Or it may have come out of the blue...or so it seems.  Because the
most important infrastructure is in YOU.

We are spirits that have a body.  We have minds, will, and emotions.
What is on the inside of us?  Are we just a deck of cards, ready to be
blown over by the slightest breeze? Are we made of straw, or sticks,
like the fairy tale, ready to be blown down?

We can't go back and heal the deficiencies that were in our
infrastructure prior to our separation or divorce.  BUT...we can
identify what we need to do to heal, repair, strenghten, and continue
on the road set before us.

The first thing is the foundation - you must have a good, solid
foundation under your home.  Matthew 7:24 says "Therefore, whoever
hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise
man who built his house on the rock."

A strong foundation is primary.  A relationship with our loving God -
trusting Him.  That may be difficult right now.  You need to wipe the
slate clean - clear off the site of the old destruction and pain, and
let him set you on the Rock.  Then you can start building on that
foundation by reading the Word, praying, fellowshiping with other
Christian's.

The next step is to grow - a solid infrastructure doesn't just sit
there.  It has to change with time and tide.

John 15:5 says "I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in
Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is
withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they
are burned. If you abide in Me, and in My words abide in you, you will
ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father
is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples."

When a home is not lived in, after a while the environment will take
over.  It is the same with our relationship with God - we need to
purpose to live in Him, and He in us.  It's a symbiotic relationship.
We glow closer to Him - He draws nearer to us.  We seek His help and
strength - He is our foundation and makes strong our inner being.

And our home!

How's your infrastructure?