After standing the outside walls, we began sheeting the exterior with sheets of OSB. In addition to covering the exterior, these half-inch sheets would provide lateral strength to my daughter and son-in-law’s new house. Before nailing each the sheets, we laid a four-foot spirit level alongside an exposed stud in the wall. It is important to keep the wall square. Despite our precautions, we noticed that the tops and bottoms of the boards were not meeting corner to corner like they should. We checked our measurements and everything seemed correct. What was the problem? Our level was not level. I held the level we had been using against another level known to be true. It was rather aggravating to discover that an instrument I had been relying upon was unreliable.
The problem with the walls of the house was temporal and fixable. However, we often need to align our lives spiritually and the need for a trustworthy tool is crucial. Consider these thoughts:
- Truth is absolute. When searching for truth, there is no better place than God’s Word. You might compare God’s Word to my spirit level, but it is better to compare it to the reality of level controlled by gravity. A spirit level tool can lose its accuracy. God’s Word never needs calibrating.
- Human understanding can be flawed. My misaligned spirit level is like human insight and opinion of God’s Word. God’s Word can never be out of alignment, but our interpretation of it certainly can be. Be careful about rash dogmatism. There have been others who have touted that they were standing firmly on God’s Word only to find out later that they got it wrong.
- A life out of spiritual alignment will be noticeable. As we added sheeting to the walls, it was obvious that things were not matching up as they should. This was the indicator that caused us to ultimately question the level in use. When a person’s spirit is out of alignment, there will be observable mismatches in behavior and speech. His mouth may testify of godliness, but his disposition may present carnality.
- Maintaining spiritual alignment requires divine wisdom. We ought to maintain a dependant spirit on God’s wisdom. My spirit level was irreparable. Our discernment will always be valuable if we continue to rely on the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth.
If you are a Christian, then you have established your life on Jesus Christ the chief cornerstone. How are you proceeding through life? As you make daily decisions and choices, are you citing accurately off God’s Word? Are you on the level?
