Why do the seasons catch us all off guard?
All through the long winter, we anticipate the spring
we watch for it, longing for the signs
but one morning, we wake up, and it’s as if spring suddenly burst forth
and we wonder when the buds appeared and how forsythia exploded spontaneously.
All over New England, the coffee shops are riddled with customers complaining about the high cost of heat over breakfast and then rushing to the big box stores for air conditioner units by dinner. Next morning over coffee, all the talk will be amazement over the sudden, unexpected heat.
We marvel at cold in winter and at high temps in July as though there were no order to it all, as if we weren’t subjected to the same progression of seasons year after year.
We’re such a strange lot.
For a race created to grow and transform from cradle to grave and set down in the midst of a bubbling earth teeming with plant life and all manner of reproduction, transition, and development,
we resist change like a walk over hot coals.
Which is why I’m always late to evangelistic opportunities with the people around me.
Yesterday, I was having an everyday conversation with a woman in my life
one for whom I’ve prayed for salvation,
one for whom I’ve asked others to pray,
one to whom I’ve intentionally witnessed through words and actions for over a year
but somehow
I almost missed it when she turned an everyday chat into a confession of her awareness of spiritual poverty in her own life.
Still bent on my own conversational agenda, I kept trucking a few miles down the road of our chat before slamming on my mental brakes and thinking,
Wait. Did she just say she’s becoming aware of spiritual needs on a whole new level and wondering about her own life?
The buds on that tree appeared overnight.
And I almost missed it because I was focused on my own voice in our conversation, not hers.
Fortunately, the Holy Spirit often appears like the roadrunner in my life and sets off ACME explosives in my tracks to garner my attention and I tuned in before the conversation took an exit off the transformation highway.
whew, nearly missed the signs.
That conversation was a bucket of cold water for me. A reminder to PAY ATTENTION.
I get so focused on planting seeds, I forget the point of the planting is to produce new life
and I freak out a little at the first sign of green poking it’s tentative stem up out of the ground as a waking soul begins to climb out of the grave Satan had planned for its eternal interment.
Maybe that’s because I sow seeds on such hard, unyielding soil,
but still,
I need to watch myself that I stop expecting some of them to take root
lest I carelessly trample a tiny plant as it emerges, stretching to receive the light.
How about you?
Do you stop anticipating change in those around you?
Do you plant with expectation or have you just started planting because you know it’s what you’re supposed to do but you’ve stopped searching the brown patch of dirt for signs of life?
How do we stay aware, alert, and anticipatory? How do we stay awake with Him in the garden?
What do you think?
“And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” Mark 4:26-29
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One often gets tired of sowing those seeds of faith and seeing nothing grow. But what have I to do that could be more important? Why else have I been given the gift of faith? Maybe when people ask me what I do for work, I shouldn’t be saying, “I’m retired now.” I should be saying “I’m sowing seeds every chance I get.” My father planted daffodils for me one year. He never got to see them bloom, but every year I watch as they shoot up from the snow covered ground, grow tall and finally blossom. And every spring I think of the man who planted them and the God who makes them grow in spite of the snow and cold. The God who brings them to full bloom for all who visit to enjoy brings forth beauty from the bulbs an old man planted. I can do that! Thank you, Lori, for reminding me. MOMMA
I can so relate to this post! It has happened to me more than once.
Thank you, Lori. A great reminder.
Hmmm. Thinking more deeply on your questions now. How do I stay alert, aware, expecting?
I try to surround myself with reminders of who He is and how much He loves us. Good preaching. Testimonials. One that inspired me recently was “Father of Lights”. Trailer here: http://youtu.be/eKpPVkHlDQU – the trailer is a little slow, but takes off after about 60 seconds. This one is a little better: http://youtu.be/ynyLJcrLowE
It helps stir up my expectations, my hope. Shows me that the Father is always moving, always pursuing. And that all I have to do is yield to Him in every interaction and He’ll touch the people around me with my words and actions.
And the second thing I do is take time aside. Ideally, every morning. But even when things are busy — on the ride to a client meeting. On a walk to the park with the kids. In the bathroom. Take a few minutes to meditate on His love and who I can love for Him, with Him, in my interactions. Asking for His eyes to be my eyes. For His heart to be my heart.
It’s hard not to love someone when you see them through His eyes.
It’s hard to forget breakthrough may come at any moment when you keep remembering the breakthroughs of the past. How unexpected they were. How long they were in coming. And how great they were when they finally showed up!
Now I’m all stirred up and excited again, just thinking about what God will do next. Heh heh. 😀
Great thoughts, Teddi. Thanks for taking the time to write them here!
Just discovered this new page of your posts on my Gmail account and I like it…Even though I do not care at all for G-mail. Enjoyed meeting you again at the conference.Posted an album on my blog and a couple are of you…I can totally relate to getting fired up and chasing after what I think the Lord is leading me to do. Only to find out he made a left turn some ways back down the road and I missed it. Keep on, keeping on..