When summer rolls around each year, I long to visit the ocean. I love the feeling of the ocean wind wrapping me in its wings and whipping my hair behind me. I love the feeling of the warm sand and the sunshine and the icy ocean water.
On one occasion, my family went on one of our long-awaited beach trips. I couldn’t wait to just relax on the beach and lie in the warm sand. But my little brother had other ideas. He wanted to enlist my help in building sandcastles. Somewhat reluctantly, I got up to help, only to become quickly consumed with the project. Before I knew it, I’d spent hours creating an impressive castle—never once thinking that it was only a matter of hours before the tide would wash away all my hard work.
I think we often make the same mistake in life, expending our time and energy building our own little “castles”. We all have sandcastles - some different, some the same. Friends. Good grades. Fashion. Sports. Guy-girl relationships. Possessions. Popularity and Reputation. Technology and media. College. We pour our time, energy, and money into building our own “castles” of possessions and basking in our own accomplishments. We may claim to care only for Jesus, but in reality we flirt with materialism. Slowly, "flirting" turns to infatuation - we become infatuated with the world. We’ve been sucked into wanting to achieve “the American Dream”. The little luxuries, goals, and things of this world are not always as innocent as they seem.
The trouble with sandcastles is that…well…they’re made of sand. Eventually, they will crumble or wash away and we will be left with nothing. Life is short. A mere breath. A vapor. Do we want to spend our lives building sandcastles that will only wash away with the changing tide? Are we living for the here and now or the then and there? Are we living for the short today or the long tomorrow?
The greatest danger of building “sandcastles” in our lives is that they often take the place of Jesus. They become more than castles—they become our idols. In Matthew 6, Jesus tells us that: "...where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." What's your treasure? And where is your heart? If Jesus is your Treasure, your heart will be wrapped up in Him.
As the old poem by C.T. Studd goes, “Only one life, ‘twill soon be past; only what’s done for Christ will last.” I don’t want to ever take this life for granted. We only have a breath of time here on earth. I don’t want to have any regrets. I don’t want to regret building sandcastles here on earth when I could have been working toward the Kingdom to come. I don’t want to get caught up with caring about the stuff on this planet. I just want to live for Jesus.
Giving up earthly treasures for treasures in heaven is always worth it. We ought to invest our time, energy, and money in the Kingdom we are going to spend eternity in. As my dear friend Shelby often likes to say, "Better to be radical than regretful." God wants you to spend your time and treasure building His kingdom, not your own. He is calling you to take up your cross daily and follow Him in surrender. What He asks of us is not easy. But it’s always worth it.
With my eyes fixed on that old blood-stained cross on a lonely hill, I’ve found I am far richer than when building my castles of sand.
"On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand...all other ground is sinking sand."
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