I’m sitting here this afternoon thinking about cracked foundations. Probably because there is a tile repairman downstairs ripping up parts of my kitchen as we speak. You see, three years ago when Michael and I bought our house the previous owners hid a crack in the kitchen flooring from us until the sale was final. When we found it and confronted them they refused to pay for the repair.

We eventually let it go and prayed it would never be a problem. We’ll throw a rug over it, we thought. After all, that’s what the previous owners did. Everything was fine until we had one of our notorious California earthquakes. After that the crack began to spread until six tiles were cracked and the problem began to seep out of the kitchen and into the dining room.

The problem had grown to a place where we could no longer ignore it. It would no longer fit conveniently under a rug. When we had Ed (the tile repairman) out to give us a quote last week he told us something he confirmed today: the tile was cracked because the foundation of our house had cracked and the person who originally laid the tile hadn’t put a protective sealant down to prevent the tile from cracking right along with the foundation.

How like life, I thought to myself. And relationships. Sometimes we build relationships right on top of cracked foundations. If I can just hide these cracks, we think to ourselves, I can pretend they aren’t there. Everything is fine until something shakes the foundation and it is proven faulty. The cracks in the foundation result in cracks in the relationship. Sometimes they are repairable. Other times they aren’t.

What are some faulty foundations we can build relationships on? Here’s a short list:

▪We want someone cool to like us so we lie about our likes and dislikes to fit in.

▪A cute guy begins showing us attention so we try to appear as someone we’re not to keep him interested.

▪Our friends at school think being a Christian is lame so we tell them we only go to church because our parents make us.

▪We aren’t allowed to attend certain types of parties so we lie to our parents and say we are spending the night with a friend so we can sneak out and go.

Cracked foundations. Dangerous ground. It’s all just a matter of time before those cracked foundations get rocked and more damage is done.

The thing about a cracked foundation is that it’s a broken foundation. We can’t expect a broken foundation to sustain weight and pressure. When life happens broken foundations only become more broken—unless we put the time and effort it to actually fix the problem instead of trying to hide it.

Right now I can hear Ed working away on fixing my kitchen floor. By tonight it will look brand new. The cracked foundation will be sealed off and new tiles will be laid on top of a protective coating that should prevent the broken foundation from damaging the tile. I will still have a crack in my floor—but it will be a treated crack. A healed crack of sorts.  

What about you? Do you have any cracked foundations in your life that need repairing? Do you have some relationships in your life that you may need to rethink? Are there new relationships you are in the process of building that need solid foundations?

I would love to hear your story.