Vantage Point

Ahh, Spring is in the air.  I love this time of year.  Everything is new and budding.  The days are longer.  The world seems fresh and alive from its Winter slumber.  Spring means new possibilities around every corner.

Unfortunately, Spring also means cleaning around every corner.  What is it about the Daylight Savings sunlight that tends to highlight the dust and debris in my life.  I like Winter's shadows much better for hiding what I want to avoid - Spring cleaning. 

I thought I kept my personal world pretty tidy but apparently not so much, thank you for pointing this out mother nature.  For example, my yard and garden look somewhat like a war zone.  The harsh winds of Winter were not kind to many of my plants.  It appears that no amount of encouragement is going to bring them back.  They sit there brown and lifeless mocking me and pleading for me to replace them with something beautiful, like flowers.  This I can do and enjoy at the same time.  There is other cleaning beyond my capabilities.

My palm tree is three stories tall.  The cold Winter killed many of its fronds.  Now they hang there dead and lifeless.  The tree needs a thorough pruning but cutting and pruning the tree is far beyond my reach.  My neighbors will just have to deal with the appearance of my raggedy tree.  At least that's how it looks from the sidewalk.

On closer observation, maybe those brown, limp fronds aren't so lifeless after all.  From inside the house I have a different vantage point from which to view the palm tree.  From my third story window I can see into the tree.  And what I see from way up here is life, exciting new life springing forth.

Nestled safely in some of those dead and dying fronds is a dove's nest.  The nest is snug and secure and protected from Spring's high winds and rain.  A mating pair of doves has found the palm tree's strong and tough arms a perfect place to start their family.  None of this is viewable from the street.  The casual observer has no idea what life transformations are taking place high above her head.  To the naked eye, the tree is ugly and in need of attention to make it pretty and useful.  The naked eye can miss so much. 

We live our lives down on the sidewalk, viewing everything through naked eyes.  We don't see things happening in our lives and so we think nothing is happening in our lives.  We miss so much.  But God has a different vantage point.  He sees everything clearly.  He sees the events and changes taking place now that we will only see later.  God knows that just because something looks dead, lifeless and unusable it is far from it.  And a lot of the time, the uglier the better for God.

Take a stroll the the scriptures some time.  Time and time again the people God used were not the ones most people would expect.  He chose the prostitutes, the tax collectors, the lepers, the adulters, the lairs and murders, and the poor, penniless and downtrodden.  If the world didn't want them God and Jesus did.  Because God could see what these people could not.  God could see their hearts, not the hearts they showed to the world, but their true hearts, found inside their inner most being.  And its there God built His nest from which he would bring forth new life into these people. And into you and me. 

My tree looks ugly and lifeless.  But if I were to prune my tree right now I would tear out the dove's home and nest lovingly prepared for new life.  I would stop right in its tracks the plans those dove parents have for their babies.  But because I was given a view from a different vantage point I know that the tree is not lifeless and it is truly far from ugly.  The same can be said for you and me.  Sometimes we see only the ugly and lifeless parts of our lives.  But God can give us a different vantage point from which to observe things; to see the plans He has for us.  He knows things are not what they seem.  He knows that from death, life will spring forth. 

God knows how beautiful we really are.  And that beauty never dies, even when covered in Winter's dirt and debris. 
~

Choose Wisely

I am
not where
               I want
to be.

I am
exactly where
                     God wants
me to be.

I have
         a choice . . .
~

Two-Way Street

The story is as old as time – new kid moves to town, girls instantly like him, guys instantly hate him. He’s rather mysterious, bringing with him new fangled ideas that upset the established order and threaten an age old way of life.

This new fangled idea is so upsetting that it not only turns friends against each other, the fear of it pits family members against one another. Eventually the heat gets turned up, protests are organized, threats are made and ultimatums contemplated. No matter what a citizen’s thoughts are on the matter one thing is certain, win, lose or draw, there will be no going back to the old order of things.

Eventually, a leader rises above the fray and is heard. His heart is heavy, his spirit is torn. He stands for the old way, the way it always has been and was thought always would be. But he is beginning to understand, to see that things change, that perhaps there is room for growth and new ideas.

His question is simple – “If we don’t start trusting our children, how will they ever become trustworthy?”

The question is simple, the answer certainly is not.

Most of you know how the movie ends. The dance goes forward, albeit in the county next door; giving the parents a chance to trust their children and the children a chance to show that they are worthy of that trust.

This storyline is not unique to Hollywood. It is a storyline that has been playing itself out again and again for more than 2,000 years. It began with a young man from Nazareth who came to town with some pretty new fangled ideas and asked the people to trust Him. Some did, some did not. His storyline is still playing out long after the non-trusters thought, mistakenly, they won.

This storyline plays out through you and me. We are asked to trust and believe in new fangled ideas.  We are asked to trust in what we cannot see or hear.  Scripture asks us to seek God and trust in Him, so we do. We seek His provision and protection. We seek His healing and guidance. We seek His wisdom and peace. And He provides all of that and more. 

But I have to admit that there are times when frankly, what God is providing is just not enough. Or it is just enough and not one ounce more. What I am really looking for is more than enough; I am looking for that abundance the bible talks about. Where can I get my hands on some of that?

Jesus tells me exactly where I can get it. In the parable of the 3 servants. (Matt. 25:14-30). A man went away and entrusted his servants with his money to look after while he was gone. He gave them each different amounts but each amount was very large. Each servant did something different with the money (talents) – one invested greatly and his talents grew greatly, one invested a little and his grew a little, and the third was afraid of losing his master’s money so he buried it and did nothing.

Of the servants who invested wisely the master said when he returned, “Well done, my good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things.” The one who buried his talents was punished.

Trust. Turns out it’s a two way street. We are to trust God “with all our heart and all our soul” (Deut. 10:12) and He will do the same.  We are asked to trust but we are also asked for trust.  When walk with God and fully put our trust in Him, He will trust us in return. He will give us bigger and bigger blessings and responsibilities as we show we are ready for them and able to handle them. Like any good parent, our Heavenly Father wants nothing more than for us to be fully trustworthy, good and faithful children, able to receive all He has for us. And He will do all He can to make us succeed in that endeavor. 

Having trust while being trustworthy, that’s a storyline better than anything Hollywood ever dreamed up.
~

Consider. . .

Living with faith is hard,
          living without faith is impossible.

Consider Matthew 17:20.
~