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It’s Spring and the sound of the lawn mower seems to reverberate all day off the houses in the neighborhood. Everyone is coming out of hibernation and working in the flower beds and trying to put their best foot forward. There’s much to be said for intentional pruning and development. I believe it is key to living a life worth living. However, sometimes no matter how hard you work, how much you fertilize or how often you water, the plants just won’t grow. We have a row of bushes along our porch that are divided by the sidewalk that approaches our front door. The bushes on the right grow, flower and flourish. The bushes on the left have been replaced three times and we are still trying to figure out how to get them to grow and not die. Same water. Same yard. Same dirt. Same hard work. Same frustration year after year! I affectionally refer to them as our object lesson of the tree of life on one side and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil on the other. When you consider all your hard work and all the hope and faith you put into getting something to healthily grow, it can be disheartening to see it wilt. Back on March 7th I wrote a blog called ‘Dead and Buried or Planted and Growing?’. You can read it by clicking the link. In some ways this is a continuation of that.
I’ve been thinking about wildflowers lately. Effortlessly, these beautiful plants pop out of the ground out of nowhere and sprawl across the hillside with ease. When you’ve worked hard to get something to grow you can despise the wildflowers because they seem to be mocking your every move! But they did come from somewhere. Maybe even from the wilted flowers you’ve worked so hard to nurture. The wind blows the seeds, the bees spread the pollen and the rain water carries life to different patches of ground. You just don’t know and that can be a source of frustration or… inspiration. It all depends on your perspective and that’s what my blog is all about. Perspective. Having The Best View In Town is all about how you see and Who you see from where you’re standing much more than it is about what you see. And wildflowers are a perfect example.
I recently was invited to share at my friend’s new church in Hickory, NC, called The Hills (go check it out if you’re in the area!). They recently moved into a new building after their one year anniversary and I was being shown around the new facility. As we walked through the building Pastor Justin said ‘you might recognize these chairs.’ In the auditorium were sitting the very same chairs that sat in a church my wife and I helped start in south Alabama in 1999. The exact chairs; not chairs that looked the same, THE same. I couldn’t believe it. I recognized them instantly. He proceeded to tell me the story of how one person knew another who helped another and ultimately lead to him being given the chairs to help their church. Not only was it nostalgic for me, it was profoundly encouraging. You see, after starting well, things turned very challenging at our church plant and circumstances were such that we had to resign and leave after 4 1/2 years. Our dream was to be there forever. 4 1/2 years is a lot shorter than forever. And now, 17 years later, I was sitting in a young church three states away in those very same chairs dreaming about the lives that would still be impacted for the Kingdom of God after all this time. We had worked hard. We had dreamed big and it seemed as if the dream had died. But then… wildflowers.
Don’t place a period where God is writing a comma. There’s more to the story. Be on the lookout for wildflowers and don’t despise them when you see them. Perhaps it was your hard work and ‘broken dreams’ that lead to those wildflowers gracing the side of that hill. God is yet using you. Look for Him and at Him and you’ll see that your life has produced a lot more wildflowers than you ever dreamed. God is for you today and so am I.
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. – I Corinthians 3:7-9 ESV
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. – Galatians 6:9 ESV
Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day. 18 Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off. – Proverbs 23:17-18 ESV
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