Topic: What makes a good foundation?
Scripture(s): Psalm 118:22, Psalm 127:1-2
Today we had our compaction test…after a huge week with many trials and joys, the results were not what we expected.
Notes: The Bible verses are included below, but it is more beneficial to read any verses from an actual Bible – or better yet, have the children read from their own. We recommend the NLT (New Living Translation – Tyndale Publishers) which is easy to read but very accurate. If you don’t have one please let us know as we may be able to help.
Description
We have recently been told by a builder that it will be hard to meet our deadline for getting the house pad down. In order to extend the building licence we need to have the pad down by the end of July. We started working frantically – but then our old 600kg compactor (we call her Big Old Bertha) packed up. We tried to revive her but it seems our days of cranking her over by hand are over 🙁
The search started for a hire compactor – but at up to $300 per day things were not looking good. Then Sharmini found someone who was offering a 500kg unit for $200 for a week! And it coincided with a trip to Perth for Uncle N’s birthday and a fire wood drop off for Grandma & Grandpa.
We had 2 retaining walls that needed to be finished in order to complete the compacting so things were going to be tight to get it all done in a week. As it turns out, we wouldn’t even have the full week due to a hospital appointment and Aunty S’s birthday(!)…
Saturday we were back too late to start, Sunday we planned to try to work around the storms and make an early start. But as we walked up to the house pad Sunday morning I felt convicted that we would be working instead of worshipping and the verse below came to mind.
Unless the L ord builds a house,
the work of the builders is wasted.
Unless the L ord protects a city,
guarding it with sentries will do no good.
It is useless for you to work so hard
from early morning until late at night,
anxiously working for food to eat;
for God gives rest to his loved ones
(Psalms 127:1-2 NLTse)
This verse is so true – and here I was about to lead my family into a situation where it was ok to forgo God in the case of deadlines…while this is the very time I should be trusting Him! I stopped and informed the family that this was the Lord’s Day and we needed to spend it with Him. (Who was relieved?!)
It was an amazing day resting, sleeping, worshipping, reading & listening to scriptures & watching some evangelism DVDs etc with each other and the Lord. We lay on mattresses, getting splashed by rain in the storm & sung “with Christ in my vessel I can smile at the storm” and I got stuck into preaching from Psalm 91 about the heart of trust. Nothing was prepared it was just a day that flowed with God. Invaluable.
The next few days were a blur (see the photo stream photos for details) with us managing to build 3 large sections of retaining wall, levelling and compacting the house pad numerous times and making a start on the shed and carport pads. To say it was a hard week would be understating it grossly – but the thing is, every part of the work went smoothly. Everything flowed, everyone knuckled down and the team charged through. It was eveident that he went before us and was with us through every job.
Thursday – the Day of Reckoning!
I wanted to ask people to pray this morning. “Please pray that we get a favourable result with the compaction test” was a thought that entered my mind. But as I thought about it – I thought “what a useless request”. Seriously sometimes our prayers really miss the mark!
Let me explain: The compaction test tells us how compact the ground is for the concrete to be laid on. An engineer uses a penetrometer to measure how many blows (or hits) a slid hammer takes to hit into the soil 300mm then 600mm. There is a correlation between how many hits taken and how hard the soil is. For instance if the Penetrometer takes 3 hits to go down 300mm, the soil is too soft. 6 hits and it is hard enough.
This test is simply an indication of the work we have done. But what if we got a favourable result and the soil was not hard enough? What if we had not done enough work or used the wrong materials? The house might look fine and we could go ahead building until the house is finished – however over time parts of the house would start to collapse and the footings would crack. The house would not be stable.
To start with I was thinking ‘where is it hardest, where should I get him to test so we pass?’, but after thinking it through I now wanted the engineer to test the spots that I thought would be the softest. I wanted to know if the work we had done was good enough. Was it ready?
Gut wrenching! I started planning how we would re-do sections if it failed and how we could still get momentum to finish the building in time. Was it all a waste? Are we following God? Is He helping us? Amazing how the doubts come in so quickly!
5pm rolls on and here he is. After the hellos and friendly chat I point him to the softest part of our pad. Only recently compacted against a wall only 2 days old – in a spot we thought we wouldn’t be building.
He drops the hammer to bury the rod 100mm – then starts to raise & release the hammer. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine – he looks at the rod and keeps hitting. The results? The first 300mm took 9 blows, the next 300mm took 12 blows – around TWICE the hardness needed to build our house!!
He tested in 15 – 20 places and this first place was the softest – most of the results were 12 blows for the first 300mm and 20 (or simply VH meaning very hard the penetrometer would not go in at all) for the next 300. We passed impressively! That’s right little old us as a family team have managed to get a large area excavated, retained and compacted harder than the level needed for a 2 storey house!
Looking back I firmly believe that God paved the way for this week – and He is indeed honouring our trust in Him. I don’t believe that spending the Sunday with Him was some kind of payment or trade off for us to get things done – but that when we do trust Him fully – He comes through…every time.
His very nature is trust worthy – Jesus really is a solid foundation for your life…
The stone that the builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone.
(Psalms 118:22 NLTse)
This week has been huge – and it hasn’t finished – so rewarding, bonding and growing. Not to mention the gifts that have been received that have literally in the nick of time kept us afloat.
Conclusion: He is always faithful – trust Him!
“Lord please help us to experience your peace as we trust in who You Are. Thank you for walking with us through the times where we know we doubt – please lead us on the path you have for us to resolve the things that hinder our trust and knowledge of who You Are. Thank you”
“So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord! ’ when you don’t do what I say? I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it. It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against that house, it stands firm because it is well built. But anyone who hears and doesn’t obey is like a person who builds a house without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will collapse into a heap of ruins”
(Luke 6:46-49 NLTse)