Dear Church Family,

Recently, I went out for a walk after one of the heavy snows. The sidewalks were buried, packed down by days of boots and paws and passing feet. In places, it was hard to tell where the sidewalk actually was. Everything looked equally white, equally solid, equally trustworthy. I followed the path that others had clearly taken before me, assuming that where many had walked must surely be the right way.

Then the temperatures began to rise, and as the snow softened and melted, something became clear. The well-worn path I had been walking on was not actually the sidewalk at all. It ran alongside it. What had once felt firm underfoot began to sag and shift, turning soft and unstable. I found myself slowing down, testing each step, searching for something solid. Only then did I see it clearly: the true sidewalk, hidden for a time, but steady and unmoving beneath the melting snow. Once I stepped onto it, my footing was sure again.

That walk lingered with me, because it felt eerily similar to the times we are living out together.

There are many paths today that seem safe simply because they are popular. They are packed down by repetition, affirmed by crowds, and reinforced by familiarity. Yet popularity does not equal permanence. When the cultural temperature changes, when pressure comes, when hardship melts away the surface, those paths often reveal themselves to be unstable.  They are not founded upon solid ground, but upon instability masked by repetition and circumstance. 

Scripture repeatedly calls God’s people to traverse on something firmer.

The Prophet Isaiah declares, “The word of our God will stand forever” Is 40:8, ESV. While opinions shift and values drift, God’s Word remains unchanged. It is not shaped by the popular traffic of the crowd, nor is it weakened by the seasons and circumstances of time and chance.

The apostle Paul warns of a time “when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions” 2 Tim 4:3, ESV. That kind of teaching can feel comforting, even firm for a while. But like that snow-packed shortcut, it cannot support the weight of real life for long.  The weather will change.  The sun will come out.  The snow will eventually melt, revealing the error in the popular path. 

Jesus Himself gave us the clearest picture. “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock” Matt 7:24, ESV. The storms still came. The rain still fell. The difference was not the absence of trouble, but the presence of a foundation that held.

Sound Christian doctrine, grounded in Scripture, is that solid sidewalk. It may not always be the most visible path. At times it can even be hidden beneath layers of cultural noise. Yet it is steady. It does not give way when life gets heavy. It holds us when grief presses down, when doubt creeps in, and when obedience costs us something.

Paul urges the church, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” Rom 12:2, ESV. Renewal happens as we return again and again to God’s Word, letting it shape our thinking, our loves, and our lives.

As a church family, may we be people who search for the solid ground. May we gently help one another step off the unstable paths of popular opinion and onto the enduring truth of Scripture. And may we walk with confidence, knowing that beneath our feet is not shifting snow, but the unchanging promises of God.

“For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” 1 Cor 3:11, ESV.

Loving you all, 

Michael