Biggest Small Group

It's going to be a bit anticlimatic getting back to work right about now....so I'm punching out for a bit...just to contemplate.   Being self-employed has its perks.

Spiritual emphasis week took place at the high school this week.  The theme is "Being transformed through Christ".    I was able to go to 3 of the 5 chapels this week...and it's been so great to just soak in this message.  Life is sooo hectic right now and these oasis moments have been an opportunity to focus on God and what He has done, is doing, and wants to do in my life.  

I'm sitting in the crowd with a couple of hundred teenagers...also soaking in these words, or at least being showered with these words.  I hope they experience a sprinkling....a watering of the seed that is in their souls...    This work is ongoing...even in those of us who have navigated the waters of adolescence...still works in progress.   Still transforming, still being encouraged and still seeking to be conduits of God's glory here in this world.  

Even today, I have to be who I am in the place where God has called me to be.  To accept myself ...all my fears and failures and to claim my identity in Him....the way He created me to be.   To bloom fully and reflect that out into the world and back to Him.   His workmanship in me.

I haven't arrived....but I'm on the Way.  

Do You See What I See?

 I have to admit that I rarely take as many photos as I wish I did.   Part of that is not wanting to live a life behind the lens but being in the moment. ...especially when the moment is fleeting.   Recently, an opportunity to visit PEI presented itself and I jumped at it! I wish I took more photos....    One cold morning I did sneak out for a bit.   Just to get the lay of the land.   There's just something about it.

An old Kenny Rogers' song talks about "still walking the furrowed fields of my mind"...and while I am no Reuben James....that visual resonates with me. 
The farm and my people at home are busy harvesting.   I was surprised how much I loved riding in the truck and tractor with my brothers, visiting the field and the warehouse...just like the old days.   
I loved the wide open space...seeing the weather move in and move along.   I loved being able to hear the surf pound    I loved standing in front of the barn that used to house my horse...miserable cuss that he was.

 I loved the smell of trucks and potatoes and soil.    When I drive in my current countryside and smell farm smells....this is where it takes me....these fields of my mind.   This place.   The place I grew up and that still holds some of my roots....and people that I have journeyed with.    It was especially neat to worship in my "home" church with the people who made promises when I made Profession of Faith.  I loved making cards with my sisters and their daughters.  To be creative together and inspire and encourage each other...but mostly...just to be in the same room together. 

So my mind loves both details and wide open spaces, reconnecting with the people.    Technology allows us glimpses into each other lives but it's the face to face time that re-roots us.  

Wow...the family reunion is so far away.

Don't They know It's October?

 The other day I looked out into the garden and saw this crazy riot of color.  There are hundreds of blooms in my garden and I did everything wrong when I planted these seeds:  It was late in the season, I didn't water them, and I didn't pay close attention to their light requirements.

Don't they know that it's October!!!  Other plants in the garden are looking scraggly and are losing their leaves....they're reacting to the colder weather and shorter days, following their natural cycle.  

Getting back to the plant analogy from a post or two ago I looked out and thought to myself: "Wow, what kind of plant do I have to be to look like that!!?"  

As soon as I said it I realized that I don't get to choose what kind of plant I want to be.  God has created me and predetermined who I would be, complete with His wonderful plans and purposes for me.    But do I have a part in choosing to bloom, or even how I bloom,  where I am planted?

This week's lesson for my small group Bible study will cover the parable of the sower.   I know....how fitting, right?   In it, the sower sows the seed and the seed falls in different places.  I have to believe that the sower wills it that way and that the seed doesn't have a lot of say.     The job of a seed is simply to grow despite its circumstances, and in spite of  the weather conditions, and to trust that the sower has prepared a place where it will thrive.

Today I am facing a disappointment.   I feel like I'm giving/ it's taking a lot of the energy.    The circumstance in which I find myself will not change, but how I deal with it, is completely up to me. Do I give in to discouragement and let my countenance droop, or do I lift my face toward His radiant light and let Him do his thing.   I have to trust that He will sustain me...like that tree in Jeremiah 17 "...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...."

I want to be part of a crazy riot of color in my spot.    I want other plants to wonder why I'm not packing it in to prepare for winter but just bloom with reckless abandon.    Not hiding that I have disappointments but simply choosing NOT to dwell on them.  Hanging onto the promises because they will not fail.  Especially when it feels like October.....

I'm reading my Bible-In-A-Year.  Occasionally I get a few days behind, but I'm trying to stay on track.   The readings are from Jeremiah right now...and yesterdays' section was from Jeremiah 31....  These are pieces that I love.   "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving kindness.  I will build you up again. ...For the LORD will ransom and redeem Jacob...   They will be like a well-waterd garden and they will sorrow no more.  They will turn their mourning into gladness;  I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow."  And from Jeremiah 32 "...Is anything to hard for me?  I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul."

Quick additional comment- Thanks Jannette for your comment!    This morning at Coffee Break we talked about God's Word taking root in our hearts.    THAT is what sustains us....in spite of what goes on around us.   The Word is the seed....and it has a lot to say :)

And I thought I would link up with Beki at The Rusted Chain for "Finger Print Friday".