Structural Integrity – With which do you build?
"We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed"(NLT) 2 Corinthians 4:8-9
About six years ago, a six-storey Melcom shopping mall in Achimota, Accra-Ghana, West Africa collapsed, resulting in huge casualties and death, not to talk of loss of inventory. It was a tragic incident in my home country and typically it was greeted with a lot of rave comments in the media landscape. As I listened to scores of structural engineers hypothesizing on the possible causes of the collapse, it dawned on me that when it comes to such large edifices, the structural integrity cannot be compromised.
Structural integrity is the ability of an item to hold together under a load, including its own weight, resisting breakage or bending. When structural engineers are assessing the structural integrity of a material, they consider qualities such as toughness, strength, weight, hardness, and elasticity. These qualities constitute the character of the material.
If we are applying this analogy to our lives, we can liken the pressures of this life to the load. The question is, are you able to hold together under the load of life? In your marriage, workplace, school, etc., are you able to withstand the pressures without compromising your God-given values? Are you tough, strong, weighty, hard, and elastic? I am not talking about brute strength. I am talking about your character.