I’ve been sitting with a line from Paul this week, from his first letter to the Corinthians. He’s writing to a church that’s split into factions, arguing over who baptized them, who they follow, whose teaching is best. And in the middle of all that noise, he says something almost matter of fact: “no one can lay a foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11).

That line has been doing something to me. I keep circling back to how much of my life I’ve spent building without checking what it was sitting on. Habits, plans, even my prayer life at different points, all resting on whatever felt sturdy that year. Motivation. A good routine. Being disciplined enough. Those aren’t nothing, but they were never the foundation either.

What I’m learning, slowly, is that the foundation isn’t something I lay once and move past. It’s something I have to keep coming back to, especially when the walls I’ve built start to crack. This month I’m trying to actually start there again, not with a new habit or a better system, but with the one the whole thing is supposed to rest on.

If you’re building anything right now, a routine, a marriage, a recovery, it might be worth asking what it’s resting on before asking how to build it higher.

Today’s Bible Study

Psalm 127 opens with a line I didn’t used to think much about: “Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1). It’s not saying effort doesn’t matter, the psalm goes on to talk about work and family and a full life. It’s saying effort without that foundation just wears you out. I’ve felt that kind of tired before, working hard at something good without ever asking if God was actually in it. Worth sitting with today: is there something I’m laboring over right now that I haven’t really invited him into?

Recommended Reading

If you want to actually build a foundation in Scripture instead of just admiring the idea of one, I’d point you to Fr. Mike Schmitz’s Bible in a Year podcast. I didn’t grow up reading Scripture straight through, and this is the thing that finally got me to just start.