We live in a world that specializes in pulling us in a thousand directions. The calendar fills before we’ve had a chance to breathe. The demands, the obligations, the endless screens—all of them promise importance, urgency, even meaning. And yet so much of it, if we’re honest, erodes the interior life rather than strengthens it. It keeps us busy but not grounded, active but not anchored.

Jesus proposes something far simpler, far more human: Choose the things that help you listen. Choose the things that help you love. Every decision, every task, every conversation becomes a kind of construction material. Some choices strengthen the soul’s foundation—mercy offered instead of judgment, time spent with someone who needed presence more than answers, a quiet moment of prayer before the day takes off. Other choices, while not inherently bad, can slowly shift our lives onto the sand—overcommitment, resentment, distraction, the subtle drift toward self-importance.

Spiritual maturity isn’t about perfection; it’s about intention. It’s the willingness to stop and ask, “Is the way I am spending my time helping me become more like Christ? Is it leading me toward my neighbor or away from them?” These questions are inconvenient, but they are the kind that save us. They are the ones that keep the house standing when the inevitable storms come.

And those storms do come. None of us is spared. But Jesus’ promise is clear: those who arrange their lives around His words—who make time for the things that matter, who refuse to let the world dictate their worth or their pace—will not collapse. Not because they are strong, but because the One they’re anchored to is.

So today, take stock. Look at your time not as a burden to be managed, but as a gift to be stewarded. Prioritize the habits and relationships that draw you closer to God. Let go of the ones that thin your soul. And trust that every small act of fidelity, every choice rooted in love, is another stone in a foundation that will endure.