Like A Well-Watered Garden

Isaiah 58: 11

The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.

A couple weeks ago I finally got a vegetable garden planted. It has been one of things that has taken up permanent residency on my list of things I want to do. I haven't had much luck in the past. Okay, it's not so much about luck. I just haven't done a very good job.

I have had these grandiose ideas about how to fill my sizable garden plot. I've been known to spend hours searching through seed catalogs and way too much time at the local green house. I have even used graph paper to design the vegetable rows and squash hills. I have discovered that with some creative hoeing you can make the water between the rows run up hill (well, sort of). I learned that having grand ideas for my garden does not make me a great gardener. It doesn't take long until I am overrun by weeds and unable to take care of the daily maintainence that such a splendid design requires. I temporarily gave up and have not planted anything the last couple of years.

While on my gardening hiatus, I realized that I missed
it. I missed working in the dirt, planting seeds, and waiting for them to come to life. Gardening puts me in the center of God's handiwork. In the garden I can clear my mind, get dirt under my fingernails and wait for the miracle of every bloom.

This year I planted about an eighth of the available space. My husband tilled the soil. My son hoed the rows and together we planted a few tomatoes, peppers, and bean plants. And zucchini . . . because zucchini pretty much grows itself.

I also ventured a little deeper into the flower bed with some marigolds and sunflowers. I was filled with excitement to discover that every sunflower seed had poked through the soil. Now I can watch with anticipation as they grow noticeably every day.

The garden is full of simple and precious lessons for me. For example: Over planning beyond my means and ability just to fill space is not a good idea. Acknowledging God's roll in everything that grows, including friendships, children, and my relationship with Him is imperative to being blessed by the results. The weedy things are much easier to handle if you tackle them as they come rather than letting them get out of control.

Have a Great Day
~Lisa

Some thoughts on lists and busy-ness

This is the time of year when I am most susceptible to the onslaught of the busy-ness virus. I’m not exaggerating when I say that busy-ness can be a viable disease in my life, especially spiritually speaking. I'm not talking about the productive and meaningful kind of busy. I'm referring to the unfruitful, running around in circles kind.

The illness of busy-ness first attacks my priorities causing me to temporarily alter the importance of things. Then, once my priorities are “adjusted” it’s easy for infection to set in. The primary symptoms of incoming toxicity are frustration, irritability, and poor workmanship. Then the nutritional deficiency (a.k.a. less Bible reading, prayer, and fellowship) begins to have effect. With these factors in place the unfavorable environmental factors become poisonous and balance is just a memory.

In short, it is much easier to nip busy-ness in the bud than it is to stop it once it’s started. I’ve found some preventative measures that seem to be working for me. First of all, when I start to feel the frenzy I spend more time being nourished by the Bible and prayer. Staying tuned in tends to give my priorities more immunity. More recently I’ve started making lists.

Lists are good for short and middle term things that I need to keep organized. Checking off the list gives me a sense of accomplishment and hope that I am making progress.

Another Kind of List

I’ve also become increasingly aware of another kind of list. Long term lists of goals, hopes, and dreams. We recently watched “The Bucket List” on DVD. It was a lot more thought provoking than I had anticipated. Without giving too much away I’ll try to say something about what I got out of the movie. The “bucket list” itself started out as a philosophical assignment to create an inventory of things to do before one “kick’s the bucket”.

I’ve never made a real “bucket list” but I have a rather rough and incomplete draft of one that simmers somewhere in the back of my mind. The list of things we want to do or to accomplish in life would be very revealing of what is in the soul. I wondered, if I had such a list, how in the end, my list of “wannas” would compare to the list of things that I actually did accomplish. In the movie the list boiled down to what brings us joy and what gives joy to others. Hmmm, something to think about.

Last year I read “101 Things You Should Do Before Going to Heaven”, by David Bordon and Tom Winters. The title pretty much tells what it’s about. I got it back out as my mind turned to the concept of lists. There are some things listed in the book that I probably wouldn’t put on my list, but it helps me get the wheels turning. Here’s a few chapter headings: Eat Cheesecake for Breakfast, Be An Answer to Prayer, Grow a New Friend, Read the Classics, Clean Someone Else’s Toilet.

I’m going to start an official list of my own. I don’t think it can hurt to record the desires of the heart. Maybe bringing these things forward a little with some focus and attention will open my spiritual ears to better hear the plans God has for me. I expect some things on the list will change as I change and my hearing becomes sharper. I also expect that some things on the list will never change.

I’m not going to make a lot of rules and regulations for my list. I’m going to allow the frivolous and impractical to sit with the heartfelt and soulful. Then I plan to listen.

1 King 19: 11-12 The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.

The prescription I've written myself for the prevention of busy-ness is to be still before the LORD. For me this is the most challenging and most important aspect of my lists, my thoughts and my actions.

As the list or lists develop I will share them here. Are you a list maker? I would love to hear about what's on your list. Thanks for stopping in. - Lisa

Lord, let it be so!

John 15: 1-3 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

Jeremiah 17:7-9

7 "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.

8 He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit."

Keep Your Lamps Burning

The World of Queue

I recently read that the average person will spend about three years of life waiting in line. There are all types of lines to wait in. For example: amusement parks, grocery stores, the DMV, doctor’s offices, restaurants and of course the much loved automated phone systems. Please press two.

This statistic wasn’t too surprising. I was a little taken aback, however, when I discovered that waiting in line has developed an entire industry. These queues (lines of waiting people) involve everything from telecommunications to traffic flow. Queuing theory is the mathematical study of waiting in line. I’m not making this up. An industry has evolved whose primary purpose it is to cut down the time in lines and to keep us happy while we are waiting. It seems we are happier if we are being entertained, informed or in some way distracted while we wait.

I’ve been fortunate. I haven’t had to endure the world of queue much lately. My last big wait was for spring. For no particular reason this past winter seemed to be very long and spring teased and sneaked its way in between the snow squalls.

It’s now June 1st and I am convinced that this is spring. The days are pleasant with cooler evening and mornings. There’s not much threat of snow and it’s raining more than usual. April 1st I started noticing the first signs of spring. Green blades of grass poked through the dead lawn and the early birds were growing restless. I began my annual ritual of awaiting the bloom of the lilac tree. The full light purple blossoms are a treat to my eyes and the sweet aroma is a gift from God. I decided to record its progress. At first there was little or no sign of advancement. However, I knew that on the inside it was changing.

This is not the first time that I’ve waited for signs of change. If you’ve ever told anyone about your faith in Jesus, you’ve probably hoped for results. If you’ve ever offered the world’s greatest advice or tried to make a difference in a life through teaching, loving, praying, or coaching you may know the angst that sometimes follows as you wait for results. And if you're a praying person you know what it's like to wait on the Lord.

I find that I don’t always get to see the changes taking place beneath the surface. I am simply asked to be obedient. I can plant and water, but God does the real work in his time as only he can do it. I just have to except that change is taking place weather I can see it or not, just like with the lilacs.

Not being able to see or know everything that I may want to also has benefits. It plants faith and makes it grow. Because I am given faith I am given hope and I have no desire to live in a world without hope. “We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It's an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God where Jesus, running on ahead of us, has taken up his permanent post as high priest for us.
(Hebrew 6: 18-20 The Message)

The Bible talks a lot about waiting. It tells about waiting patiently (Romans 8:25), waiting in hope (Psalm33:20), waiting eagerly. (1 Corinthians 1:7), and waiting to the point of embarrassment (Judges 3:25). “God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.” (1 Peter 3:20)

As God’s children we are called to wait. Romans 8:23 says, “Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” Psalm 27:14 says, “Wait for the LORD, be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.”

God’s Queuing System

I believe God has a queuing system of his own. His is not a systematic plan of distraction but of use and purpose. We are not to sit motionless, tapping our fingers with impatience and boredom. “We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies.” (2 Thessalonians 3:11)

The Bible is full of things to do while we wait for the LORD. Luke12:35-37 sums it up pretty well. "Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them."

Psalm 37:3-7 gives some great advice on how to keep the lamps burning. “Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit you way to the LORD; Trust in him and he will do this. He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;”

They waited for me as for showers and drank in my words as the spring rain." Job 29:23

- Lisa