Restoring my Sight

The past few weeks have found me
in a valley of my own making...

As I have had to deal with some difficult
situations, I have allowed myself to be
pulled into a pit of despair...

I have allowed my vision to be
clouded by my circumstances,
and instead of choosing to see GOD,
I have chosen to see the situations
and difficulties of this life...

And not only to see them,
but to wallow in them...
allowing them to consume my thoughts
and affect my behavior...

So, today I find myself
in search of corrective lenses...
ones that will correct my vision...
and allow me to see clearly.

The first thing I do every morning is to
reach over to the table beside my bed
and put my glasses on.

Until they are on,
I am unable to see clearly.

I would never try to go through my day
without my glasses on...
I couldn't do it...
I would be unable to accomplish anything.
I refuse to go through my day with blurry,
unfocused eyesight.

I wear my glasses because they correct
my vision so that I can clearly see the things
of this world...

But...
I have to wonder...
How about the things of God?
How much more important is it that
I can clearly see Him?

And once again, I find it...
this skewing of my priorities...
this focus on the temporal,
instead of the eternal...

Psalm 34:8 instructs me to
taste and SEE that the Lord is good...

This requires action on my part...
choosing to see Him as He really is...

I need to SEE God...
to SEE His goodness...

I need to correct my vision with
His Word...

I wouldn't even consider
going through my day without
correcting my earthly vision...

How much more should I
refuse to go through my day
without correcting my
spiritual vision?

Isaiah 43:18-19 records these words:
"Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up;
do you not PERCEIVE it?"

And from deep within,
I hear my heart cry in response...
Yes, Lord!
I want to see it...
I want to perceive it...

Be Thou my vision,
O Lord of my heart...

Tasting His Goodness...

My alarm goes off...
and I open my eyes to SEE what time it is...
I reach over and TOUCH the snooze button...
just hoping to grab a few more stolen moments of sleep...
But then I listen and I HEAR it...
the sounds of morning...
birds in the trees... calling & answering...
So, I arise... and then I SMELL it...
the aroma of freshly brewed coffee...
I pour myself a cup, peel a banana,
and sit down to TASTE my breakfast...

And then I realize...
that in just a few moments...
I have engaged my senses to
experience my physical world...
with hardly any effort at all

It is so easy to experience the physical...
the natural...
but what about the spiritual?
How do I use my senses to experience God?

It doesn't come as easily as the physical,
which I often do without really thinking about it...
The spiritual requires more of an effort...
more time... more seeking...
Is that why I don't do it as often?

This is what plagues me today...
And I seek an answer to this question...
How DO I use my senses to nurture my
relationship with my Creator?

And I choose to explore this question
one day at a time...
one sense at a time...
and today it leads me to TASTE...

The Scriptures tell me to 'TASTE and see
that the Lord is good' (Ps. 34:8) and they tell
me that His words should be sweet to my
TASTE (Ps. 119;103) and that I can TASTE
of His kindness (1 Pet. 2:3)

I consider this in light of my natural, physical world...
Daily I choose what I will taste,
and I often eat without really paying attention
to the food... and often I make bad food choices...
Much of what I choose is either quick & easy
or something that brings pleasure to my taste buds...

These considerations tend to outweigh what should be
the more important criteria...
is this what my body needs?
will this bring nourishment to me?

Is that the way I am with God...
looking for a quick & easy way to taste His goodness?
picking and choosing what I will taste and partake of
         based on my preferences?

This tasting is about a choice...
what I CHOOSE to partake of...

Do I choose to partake of Him
more than I choose to partake of other things?
Do I choose to taste of His goodness when the
tasting is hard... and when it requires time & effort?"
Do I choose to TASTE from the whole of His Word
or do I want to pick and choose the parts that are
easy for me to digest?

With my food choices, it is possible for me to eat
things that are not good for me...
With God,
this is not the case...
it is ALL good for me

If I am truly willing to explore Him in this manner,
I must admit that some of what I TASTE
I may not like...
But ultimately it is ALWAYS good for me...
Actually, it is always the BEST for me...

It may not seem good in the moment...
and when it doesn't...
I must still make the hard choice...
to take Him at His Word...
to TASTE (and see) that the Lord is GOOD...

Help me to taste of You, O LORD....

The Master Gardener

So, this morning I am pondering gardening in light of Scripture...

As I mentioned in my last post,
right now I sense that I am the seed sown among thorns...
that on many occasions I am allowing myself to be choked out
by things of this world...
So hard to admit...
and, yet, with the admission comes the recognition that a change is in order...

So, what about the good soil? 
The book of Matthew describes it this way:
"And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil,
this is the man who hears the word and understands it;
who indeed BEARS FRUIT"

And there I see it... fruit-bearing... and I wonder...
Am I truly bearing fruit... or is my branch barren?

Chapter 15 of the book of John has much to say about this fruit-bearing...
and I have read it... again and again...
and there is always something new to see and discover...
(isn't that always the case with the Word of God?)

This bearing of fruit... it means yielding fruit...
which is defined as 'giving forth in return for cultivation'...

So I ask myself:
Who is cultivating?
And I think in some ways the answer surprises me...
It is God.

John 15 states that God is the vinedresser...

This means the one who cultivates vines...
and this cultivating is hard work...
it is labor-intensive... tilling the soil...
preparing and working the soil in order to produce fruit.

I have tried so hard in my life to produce fruit for Him...
But now I begin to see the truth...
I am not the fruit-producer...
I am the soil...

The soil does not do the tilling... the cultivating...
It lets itself be tilled and plowed up and overturned and cultivated.
And then it yields fruit...
because of the work of the Cultivator.

There is so much freedom in this Truth...
The psalmist says it well...
'Cease striving, and know that I am God'
And I hear it...
'Stop trying to cultivate, Lynn... let Me do My job... and you do yours'

And my job seems easier...
until I realize that the tilling is intended to break up clods and
root up weeds... and that can be messy, and ugly, and even painful.

And once the branch starts to bear fruit...
   the pruning begins...
Pruning means to rid or clear of anything superfluous or undesirable...
       by cutting off...
And again I see that this too will be messy... and ugly... and painful.

Yet I find encouragement in these words found in John 15:
'Every branch that bears fruit He prunes,
THAT IT MAY BEAR MORE FRUIT'
and
'I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me,
and I in him, he bears MUCH FRUIT'
and again,
'By this is My Father glorified, that you BEAR MUCH FRUIT,
and so prove to be My disciples'.

Am I willing then...
to be dug up and overturned...
exposed... pruned...
that I may bear MUCH fruit and glorify the Father?

Make me willing, O Lord...

One Thing

Today I am pondering the simplicity of 'the one thing' mentioned in Scripture.

Jesus said to Martha, "But ONE thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:42, NKJV)

And there it is... the ONE thing... being with Jesus...

In 1 Cor. 2:2, Paul says "For I determined to know NOTHING among you EXCEPT Jesus Christ, and Him crucified"...

And again I see it... expressed a bit differently...
but still the ONE thing... knowing Jesus...

Once again I am taken aback by the true simplicity of the message...
ONE thing... Jesus...

So simple the message... and yet so difficult the application...
Why is that?

I think about the parable of the sower, and the seed which fell among the thorns...
"These are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity" (Luke 8:14)  The same parable is found in Mark where the "pleasures of this life" is translated as "the desires for other things"

This, then, becomes the answer for me personally as to why the living of the ONE thing is so hard to do, even though the concept is so easy to understand...
I am being choked... by concerns and pleasures and desires in this world...

I think that I want this different kind of life...
this living in pursuit of the ONE thing...
and I can honestly say that I want to want it...
but often I don't live like that is what I want...
I allow myself to be choked...
usually because I haven't taken the time and made the commitment
to pursue Him... to know Him... to spend time at His feet...
like Mary... like Paul...

Teach me, Lord, to delight myself in You,
that You may give me the desires of my heart...
that You may place and grow within me...
the desire for more of You...