Leave the Bones Alone

Great minds have crumbled under the weight of unanswered questions– their labor in vain. Because for all of their knowing, they did not have the simple truths that you and I have. In all of their building, they didn’t have the right bones. Their labor was in vain.

Early in our lives, we establish “bones”; things that we come to look at as truths, simple or not.

In 2019, Country-Pop artist Maren Morris released a song entitled “The Bones”. The chorus of the song says:

“When the bones are good, the rest don’t matter
Yeah, the paint could peel, the glass could shatter
Let it rain ’cause you and I remain the same
When there ain’t a crack in the foundation
Baby, I know any storm we’re facing
Will blow right over while we stay put
The house don’t fall when the bones are good”
“The Bones” , Maren Morris

The song stands as a metaphor for a strong and healthy relationship. According to Morris, as long as the bones and foundation of a relationship are good, no matter how things look, this relationship will remain.

Early in our lives, we establish “bones”; things that we come to look at as truths, simple or not. We learn our names. We figure out who our mother and our father is, where we’re from, that the earth is round and is supposedly spinning and allegedly that’s why the sun rises every morning is replaced at night by the moon. We’re told that it’s our brains that tell our lungs to inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide even though we can’t possibly think about these things at every second of every day we’re alive– it just happens.

If any one of these “truths” were to be upended, it would cause a radical shift in the way we continue on our life’s journey, so we prefer that they remain the same. In math and science, they’re called constants or constant variables. In Sunday School, our constant variables are our Acts 2:38s, our Deuteronomy 6:4. Our basic doctrine that though we’re taught so early on in our walks with God, no matter what age, these things cannot ever change.

At some point, however, we progress beyond the basics and we want to know more. Now that I’ve known my name for 21 years, I want to know my enneagram number. Now that I know my parents, I want to know why in the world my mother married my father. I’ve graduated high school, I want a college degree. We have questions. We have ambitions of knowledge. We soon find out that everyone learns, whether we want to or not. Life is the greatest teacher and has a way of making the least inquisitive minds burn with one question: “Why?”

For all of our questions, there are answers so it seems. We live in the information age, what is there that we cannot Google? But in all of our searches for knowledge and wisdom, God says:

“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.”
Psalms 127:1

Great minds have crumbled under the weight of unanswered questions– their labor in vain. Because for all of their knowing, they did not have the simple truths that you and I have. In all of their building, they didn’t have the right bones. Their labor was in vain.

Jesus says in Matthew 7,

24 “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.”

If it’s one thing we know, it’s that in this life the wind is gonna blow, so our standing matters. But once the foundation is laid, we have to continue to build upwards. “Life” should not be able to take out our foundation. Once we have our hope secured and have settled this foundation in our hearts and minds, the Bible encourages us to build upwards, going deeper in God.

“Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instructions about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgement.”
Hebrews 6:1

Once we have these as our bones, nothing should be able to move us. There are some “truths” that will be challenged over the course of our lives. There are things that we’ll think are secure but will somehow be shaken. That’s okay. Some things may just be tradition. Tradition isn’t wrong but when it comes to your relationship with God, your traditions, ideologies, values, and other things that otherwise shape our thinking, must line up with the Word of God.

There’s an old song that my youth choir sang when I was younger that says

“I never lost my hope
I never lost my joy
I never lost my faith
But most of all, I never lost my praise”
“I Never Lost My Praise” , Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir

I’ve always wondered, “how in the world is that possible?” If you know me, it’s wholly possible for me to lose all four of those things just by walking into Walmart or any social situation that requires me to interact with people! Yet there are individuals who dwell so securely with Jesus that no matter what they’ve gone through, they never lost their praise. How?

“Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil” (KJV)
Hebrew 6: 19 (KJV)

“We have this hope as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever”
Hebrews 6: 19-20 (ESV)

Here is how you’ll never lose your praise: by having this same hope as a sure and steadfast anchor for your soul. What is this hope and what is it anchoring you to? Your foundation, your bones, truth.

These are simple truths that we know: