August 29, 2026
A Better Way
We often hear the expression that Jesus is the cornerstone of the Christian faith. Have you ever heard of a Keystone? A keystone is a central stone at the summit of an arch, locking the whole together. Once we understand the concept of the keystone we stand in complete awe of the Cornerstone. It’s a great place to camp and plan how to pattern our lives.
Occasionally, not often these days, I have a time of overwhelming obligations. Bills, work, writing, that feeling everything is “must do” and “most important.” Through years of Bible study and Bible reading, I have been schooled in how to find peace. Stop, breathe deeply, ask God for a large drink of faith and patience and suddenly priorities pace themselves out and a sense of peace prevails. We cannot begin to control time and chaos with the mastery our Lord achieves in a moment of prayer.
Patience is our best tool as we travel through life. Line upon line. Precept upon precept. Each day offers us an opportunity to trust God and ignore the world’s stressful and relentless distractions. Winning a race isn’t a one day thing. We must train. It isn’t easy. Train. Exercise. Build endurance and build the muscles you will need. It takes weeks, months, even years to be a seasoned athlete, a seasoned worker in the Kingdom of God. When we tire, when we want to quit, we must ask God for energy and faith to keep going. If we look to the Cornerstone we will see how to focus on the Father and how to maximize prayer time.
If we huddle in our churches, doing the “We four and No more” thing, if we stay away from the dirty unwashed, the tax collectors and their friends, we will see the tax collectors and prostitutes sitting where we thought we would sit. They will be the sick who hear the message and repent. We will be the Pharisees who missed the point entirely. Love thy neighbor as you love yourself. So simple. And yet easily missed in our compulsive church work roles. Better to get your hands really really dirty in the highways and byways. If we want to follow Jesus we will indeed step outside the church.
We live in a world of acceptable judgment. It is everywhere. Journalists, who by training, know it is wrong to allow their work to show bias, instead choose inflammatory words, judgmental words in such a way it disrespects their education. Others soon pick up their tone, judging books by covers all day every day. I think Jesus would ask modern journalists to throw that first stone only if they have never sinned. LOVE! It’s getting more and more rare in our critical culture. And yet, we are told, Love your neighbor as yourself. We need to get that lesson down in our hearts! No matter what! Love your neighbor as you love yourself.
We can’t wish our days away, waiting for our own vision of happiness. We need to stop, thank God, really revel in the day we are living and trust God for future changes only as He desires them in our lives. Life has already shown us many times the things we desire are not as great as we imagined. Wait on God. We can imagine and hope but far better to live the day we are in and trust God for the future.
Lord God, thank You for designing a life where I do not have to do everything. I can trust You, hear the call You’ve placed on my life, and begin to develop the skills needed to do what You’ve asked me to do. When troubles come, when I hit a wall or a wall hits me, I can give that situation to You and You will walk me through it. Help me. Lord, to let go and let You fulfill all Your promises to me. Help me always turn to the Cornerstone.
So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic. Isaiah 28:16