Brick vs. Cornerstone

Every day I drive 40 minutes to work. It could be a shorter drive but working an unpaid internship forces me to save money where I can; toll roads are an easy thing to cut out and simply add more traffic lights and time. Then I drive 15 minutes to my second job (on days that I work both) and at 12:30 am, I drive another 45 minutes home. I spend a lot of time in Baby Blue, my trust car that is the color of Babe the Blue Ox.
I listen to quite a bit of music on this drive and lately have been listening to a podcast of sermons by Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Mark yells a lot, gets pretty passionate, and dives into Scripture. I like it. I have been listening to his sermon series called "Trial", focused on 1st and 2nd Peter. The one I listened to most recently was quite challenging. He talked about Jesus as the Cornerstone (1 Peter 2:4-8) in a sermon called Trial: Temptation from Worldliness (you can find it online HERE). The thing that he said that challenged me was "Is Jesus the Cornerstone of your life or is he just another brick."

You see, the Cornerstone is the thing that a house is built around. Remove it and the whole thing crumbles. A brick is kind of like Jenga; remove it and chances are you are still doing ok. So is Jesus the Cornerstone or a Brick? Is he the thing that, if you remove, the whole thing crumbles? Some people might see this as a bad thing. They might say, "Jesus is great and we should have him in our lives as a positive influence, as a moral guide, possibly even saying the Jesus Christ is the Son of God and should be in our lives because he is the only way to God. BUT dont build everything on top of that." I think there are a lot of people like that, even a lot of people who call themselves Christians.

But can you be a Christian is Jesus is just another brick? If your life, every aspect of your life, isn't dependent upon Jesus Christ being the Messiah and the one that we follow, how can we call ourselves Christian, disciples of Jesus Christ. I know that I am not perfect. I know there are times that I try to relegate Jesus to a brick, that I say "It's just my choices in music or movies, its entertainment and Jesus doesnt really care what I listen to or watch." Or perhaps I live as if the Bible is just another book, as if Jesus wasnt speaking literally when he said "If any man is to come after me, he must take up his cross and follow me. He who seeks to save his life will lose it and he who loses his life for my sake and the Gospel, will find it." So I dont really need to be lost in him.

But I do. I have to. If I call myself His disciple, I have no other choice than to follow, even when I dont understand. This doesnt mean that it is wrong to question or doubt or seek out answers. We are told to do that, being "wise as serpents yet innocent as doves." Questioning but following in faith. So how about it. Is Jesus just another brick or the cornerstone?