Beware of Fatal Flaws

A massive rain across Southern California taught me a hard life lesson. I had worked on our badly designed church roof for the last twenty years, patching and repairing, then re-roofing the entire flat roof section of the building. Then more patching and repairing. Then more after that. And more after that. Then finally in early January, I concluded I had finally conquered the perennial roof leaks. Yea! My diligence and painstaking care had paid off.

Then came the trilogy of rainstorms that drenched us for a week.

To my astonishment, grief, and indignation, the roof leaked more than it had ever leaked since I first arrived twenty years ago. And it leaked in new places where it had never leaked before.

After I calmed down and took some deep breaths, I thought hard about all this and came to an inevitable conclusion: If something is fatally flawed, no amount of effort can ever make it work well. The original roof was so foolishly designed, it leaked from the very beginning. To completely stop the leaks, I would have to tear down the roof and rebuild it altogether.

And I saw how all of life is like that.

If my spiritual life is fatally flawed with poor foundations, no amount of attempting to grow spiritually will ultimately prove lasting or successful. The flaws will always drag me down.

The same is true of relationships. Physical health. A business. Government. Education. Operational systems. Or any kind of creative project one might attempt.

In all areas of life, if the foundations of something are fatally flawed, it will never ultimately go well when tested. Some things need radical rebuilding, change, or intervention.

So I learned to accept the reality of this, both with the leaky flat roof and with everything else in life. It’s opened my eyes to many things. And it’s made me wiser.

Are you dealing with anything that’s got fatal flaws?

Think about it.

Now what will you do?