What a day! Today was the designated day to help a member of our community paint her house. There are lots of unanswered questions regarding this person and one of the biggest is why she is painting the house alone without her husband's help and why she needed to ask others to help her when her husband is capable of helping. My friends and I were not facing this day with a good attitude but we decided it was what God wanted us to do and we knew we would at least have fun being together, if nothing else.
The day dawned with a bright and beautiful sun and I got my Saturday morning church work done in record time. I was actually pretty ticked at God because that meant He must have wanted me to paint. So, off we went to paint. We joined our friends at the home and it was suggested that we pray, so we did. The prayer of blessing on us as we worked together, the job, etc. was no sooner over when a couple walked up the driveway. Most of us had no idea who these people were, but one couple did recognize them. It was a couple who was neighbors with one of our friends and our friends had been inviting them to our group. They didn't feel comfortable coming to our group meetings on Sunday evening, but they felt comfortable enough to come paint with us. It was very clear, very quickly, that God was showing up in a big way and in a way that totally surprised us. We thought our job was to minister to a family whose house needed painting. But it turns out we were to minister to a couple He wanted us to bring into fellowship with Himself and us. Now, isn't God something?
I pray for both couples -- the one whose house we painted and the one who showed up to help. Thank God we did what He called us to do today. Just look at the opportunity and blessing we would have missed.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Friday, September 5, 2008
Pumpkin Vine
I saw a pumpkin vine last weekend and it was rather impressive. It was a lush and green vine and was very, very large. After looking at the vine and peeking under the leaves, I was surprised by what I found. There were little blossoms and many stems, but all was for naught. How could there be a stem without a pumpkin at the end of it? Where were the pumpkins? Way down under the green leaves there was one tiny pumpkin. It was still green and might have eventually turned into a pumpkin of some size, but there wasn't going to be time.
The next day, I went for a walk and started thinking about that vine. I realized that my life was a lot like the vine. I was spending a lot of time worrying about this and fussing about that and trying to fix this and trying to figure out that. I was spending time growing my vine. Things were looking good and are flourishing. But then there were the empty stems and where were the pumpkins? Where was the vegetable that I was SUPPOSED to be growing?
Jesus says "I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because aprt from me you can do nothing." John 15:5.
So here I am in life, trying to grow a vine. And the little branches without anything on them? They are my attempts at abiding. I get going for a little while, but then I falter and there is no fruit (or in this case, vegetable). And sometimes, I even produce a little "vegetable" and it starts to grow, but it never seems to fully develop. These are both times in my spiritual journey when I'm working on the disciplines and working on listening to God and working on what God would have me do and I'm abiding in Him. He's working on the vine and I'm trying to abide. I'm getting some little shoots and a tiny vegetable, but that's all.
You might remember earlier I said that the little pumpkin in the real vine that I saw didn't have much time. That's because the owner of the pumpkin vine told me that in the morning, he was going to pull out that vine because it wasn't producing any pumpkins. Again, Jesus said "He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit". Therefore, Jesus is going to prune me and prune me until I start listening to him and bearing "vegetables" rather than working on my vine. The vine is God's job, I need to work on my "insides" to grow vegetables that God can use.
So, this is my Listening to God story. And the reason it happened at all was because I was willing to pull to earphones out of my head when I walked that day and God spoke to me. He opened a little window so that I could learn something about my life and my walk with Him. May we all learn how to listen to God when He speaks and learn to provide places and circumstances for that to happen. And in that, may be we all bear "vegetables" to His glory.
The next day, I went for a walk and started thinking about that vine. I realized that my life was a lot like the vine. I was spending a lot of time worrying about this and fussing about that and trying to fix this and trying to figure out that. I was spending time growing my vine. Things were looking good and are flourishing. But then there were the empty stems and where were the pumpkins? Where was the vegetable that I was SUPPOSED to be growing?
Jesus says "I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because aprt from me you can do nothing." John 15:5.
So here I am in life, trying to grow a vine. And the little branches without anything on them? They are my attempts at abiding. I get going for a little while, but then I falter and there is no fruit (or in this case, vegetable). And sometimes, I even produce a little "vegetable" and it starts to grow, but it never seems to fully develop. These are both times in my spiritual journey when I'm working on the disciplines and working on listening to God and working on what God would have me do and I'm abiding in Him. He's working on the vine and I'm trying to abide. I'm getting some little shoots and a tiny vegetable, but that's all.
You might remember earlier I said that the little pumpkin in the real vine that I saw didn't have much time. That's because the owner of the pumpkin vine told me that in the morning, he was going to pull out that vine because it wasn't producing any pumpkins. Again, Jesus said "He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit". Therefore, Jesus is going to prune me and prune me until I start listening to him and bearing "vegetables" rather than working on my vine. The vine is God's job, I need to work on my "insides" to grow vegetables that God can use.
So, this is my Listening to God story. And the reason it happened at all was because I was willing to pull to earphones out of my head when I walked that day and God spoke to me. He opened a little window so that I could learn something about my life and my walk with Him. May we all learn how to listen to God when He speaks and learn to provide places and circumstances for that to happen. And in that, may be we all bear "vegetables" to His glory.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)