Foundations and Fancy Things

I've heard it many times. You probably have too. A good foundation is the basis of everything: building a house, learning to read, training a horse, and (of course) religion. So if it's something that's pretty common knowledge how come it's still an issue? Is it even still an issue?

Well, I guess that's your own decision, but in my life it definitely still is. And God definitely showed that to me. When I got Zeke I knew I would be training him. I had worked for a horse trainer before and would work with the horses after he thought they were far enough for me to work with. He was the one laying the foundation and I was the one adding on the more interesting and advanced things. In my head these were the "fun" things.

Because these things were more exciting and more fun, I liked them more and spent more time on them. I knew the horse already had the foundation, so revisiting it wasn't too important right? No, I was wrong. But at that time I didn't realize it because the trainer had already done such a good job laying down the foundation in the horse that my lack of attention to it didn't cause it to crumble. As I added on the fancy frills to the horse I wasn't going back and reinforcing the foundation. Like I said, lucky for me the foundations of these horses were fully developed and reinforced before any extra fancy things were added.

However, with Zeke it was up to me to lay this foundation. I did just that. I laid down a good foundation. He knew everything he was supposed to, and once he did I deemed it time to move on to the fun stuff, the stuff I wanted to be working on. His basics weren't flawless, but he understood and could do everything pretty well. So once I felt he had a "good" foundation I started adding in the more advanced, fancy and fun training aspects. As you can see from the picture I was working on getting him to hold his head nicely and feel like butter in my hands. That's definitely an upper-level move. It was still early in his training (notice the helmet).

My desire to move to the fun stuff ended up being detrimental. Although he had a good foundation, it wasn't properly reinforced. As I added on more frivolous, fancy things the weight became too much for the foundation I did lay and its flaws became more apparent. These holes and cracks in the foundation kept growing, Zeke was getting confused and frustrated and so was I.

Now to remedy my lack of foundation building before moving on the more "fun" and challenging obstacles I've decided to reinforce the foundation completely until it can't be moved before moving on. I've learned from experience that I would rather a horse have a flawless foundation with no "extras" than a horse that can do things many horses can't but doesn't have as strong of a foundation.

God has used this to teach me about Him. I feel that He wants the same for us. There are many things that we as Christians can get excited about and want to get caught up in. These are the big controversial issues of the modern church such as charismatic gifts for example. These issues and just absorbing yourself in doctrine, history, and the likes aren't a part of the foundation per say, but the fancy extras built upon it.

I have friends who can go into depth on so many deep topics and issues in the Christian world, but does that make me any less of a Christian? No, of course not. Although there is nothing wrong with knowing deeper theology, I feel that God would prefer us have an unmovable foundation. That being our relationship with Jesus and obeying what He commands. And the simply way to obey what He commands is to love God and love our neighbors. After all, doesn't that sum up the entire law?