In ancient times, bricks were primarily made of two ingredients: mud and straw. Apart from utilitarian ingredients, they were useless. After all, mud is the stuff we avoid, gunk on the bottom of our shoes. And straw is just dead grass. Or as Jesus explained, something that’s “here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire.”

But together, these two seemingly insignificant items became ingredients used for a noble purpose. No longer are they scraped from the bottom of your shoe or thrown into the fire. In the right hands they become catalysts for building empires.

Under the discerning care of a builder they are collected, molded, and formed into bricks. In the same way, your life is filled with mud and straw. Maybe your mud is that difficult season in your marriage. And your straw might be that troubling time in your career. With the wrong perspective they’re simply experiences you’d rather scrape from your shoe and leave outside of your mental construct. 

But with the right perspective, these life experiences become essential ingredients into who you become. The difficult season in your marriage becomes the experience that strengthens it. The troubling time in your career is what makes you focus on what matters most and grows you into the man you never would have become.

What are you going to do with the mud and straw? You could see it as something to scrape from the sole of your shoe. But for what it’s worth, I’d suggest building something with it.