As the summer draws to an end and our conversation “Summer on the Mount” closes, I keep thinking how our time on the mountain reflects the season we have been in. We climbed through blessing, light, and a righteousness deeper than rule-keeping, through the steep, hidden, hard-to-release parts of following Jesus. We soon arrive at the summit: Solid Ground.
That title is not accidental. Matthew 7 ends with two builders caught in the same storm, standing on different foundations.
And the weather is changing. As I write this, our students will swap pool days for backpacks, and our whole community shifts rhythms: new schedules, new classrooms, new routines. Change tests our foundation. It is easy to build on sand when everything around us is already in motion.
That is why our conversation ends where it does. The Sermon on the Mount was never meant to stay on a mountain in our imagination. It is meant to become the ground we stand on Monday morning, in a carpool line, at a desk, before a new boss or teacher. Solid ground is not found by avoiding change. It is built by practicing these words before the storm arrives.
So as we send our students back to school and we all prepare for the fall, I would ask: what are you building on this year?