My Dead Yard...

Today’s passage in 1 Corinthians 3:5-7 pains me.  All of the talk about planting and watering is just a reminder that I have a dead front yard waiting for me…well, this passage and the fact that my wife just asked if I was ever going to finish the project I started 8 months ago.  Ouch.  It is currently a large patch of dirt with a lot of wild grass and weeds.  I have a vision of a lush, green and weed-free yard but have had to content myself with the vision at this point because reality is very brown out there.

The current state of my yard started in the fall of last year.  I unexpectedly came into some money and decided to use those funds for a project that I’ve always wanted to do…install an in ground sprinkler system.  I had no idea of the amount of work I was signing up for when I first started tearing up my yard to do this.  The long and short of it: the sprinkler system is in, the area is prepped and now waits for me to plant…and it’s been waiting a long time.  All of that work and I have yet to throw some seed down and see any results.

It is very easy to get discouraged in our faith and/or ministry, isn’t it?  There are times when it feels like we work our tails off for the Kingdom of God and that it seems to have very little impact.  We begin asking questions like, “is it worth it?” and “is there something else I should be doing with my time?”  We might respond a different way that is marked with jealousy and frustration over things that are out of our control.  We find ourselves thinking destructive thoughts.  “If I had all of the resources they have, I could have success too.”  “If the people I lead would just work harder, get a vision, and pray more then God’s favor would show up.”  “Why does that person always get everything handed to him for nothing?”

It begs for a reminder of what Solomon wrote when he said “unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain.”  We place a lot of emphasis and weight on the work of man.  All we can do is set the stage.  All we can do is plow the soil, plant some seed and create a space where things can grow.  All we can do is work hard.  That work means nothing without God causing it to grow.  We mustn’t dismiss the importance of doing the work though.  We must continue to create an atmosphere where God can work.  As we continue to plant with our words and water with our actions and pull weeds through discipline and correction, we can count on the success that only God can bring.  It doesn’t happen quickly but it does happen.  I plan on lounging around my front yard this summer in a bed of green lush grass.  I also plan on enjoying what God accomplishes when I work and let Him do what only He can do.

A Game of Tag Gone Bad...

When I was in the fourth grade I had three teeth broken in a fight.  Calling it a fight is like saying that the Battle of Little Big Horn was good odds for the U.S. Cavalry.  Saying that I was in a fight would imply that violence went both ways...it was more like a massacre. The evening started off innocently enough playing basketball in the church gym.  I don’t know when things went south, but I recall making a teasing remark toward one of my friends about him liking a certain girl (which he did) and this led to a grand chase around the gym.  I was wily and untouchable up until the point where his ninth grade sister grabbed hold of me as I was running by.  No longer able to defend myself by running in circles, I received several tooth-breaking hits to the face which led to my discovering that he was genuinely out to hurt me…and I just thought it was a game of angry tag.

It is a story full of irony…getting beat up at church over a girl who was the pastor’s daughter.  The greatest irony was that earlier that same day, I had willfully disobeyed my mom and she had given me a choice: get a whipping for my disobedience or not be allowed to go the gym and spend the night with a friend.  I opted for the whipping since mom didn’t spank that hard.  By going to the gym I got broken teeth, made a late night trip to the dentist, and didn’t get to spend the night with my friend anyway.  I chose poorly.

I tell this story with much chagrin.  I can somewhat laugh about it now but it was one of those moments in life where I recognized how a poor choice can have significant, life-altering ramifications.  It is an example of a time where acting like a kid without restraint can have some grown-up consequences.

1 Corinthians 3:1-4 talks about how “mature” adults are suddenly transported back to the fourth grade again.  Paul tells us here that the difference between the spiritual man and the worldly man can be determined by heart attitudes that make their way to the surface.

When was the last time you acted below your spiritual age?  When was the last time you embarrassed yourself by your lack of self-control?  I think we fancy ourselves to be beyond those kinds of conflicts only to have a reaction that reveals the state of our hearts.  We will always have the potential to show off that latent infancy that tries to come to the surface when opportunity rises.  When it does…will broken teeth result?

If I Only had a Brain...

Scarecrow: I haven't got a brain... only straw.

Dorothy: How can you talk if you haven't got a brain?

Scarecrow: I don't know... But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking... don't they?

Dorothy: Yes, I guess you're right.

Wizard of Oz: Why, anybody can have a brain. That's a very mediocre commodity. Every pusillanimous creature that crawls on the Earth or slinks through slimy seas has a brain. Back where I come from, we have universities, seats of great learning, where men go to become great thinkers. And when they come out, they think deep thoughts and with no more brains than you have. But they have one thing you haven't got: a diploma.

Yesterday we celebrated the resurrection of our Savior.  What a marvelous day it was.  Having been raised in church, I have heard the account of the resurrection many, many times.  The story doesn’t offend my intellect because I believe it.  I believed it blindly at first, as any child would.  I believe it now because of physical and spiritual evidence.  I often forget that the very idea of the resurrection goes completely against the grain of rationality and intelligence…i.e., the brain.

I regularly wonder if a message that I deliver about resurrection theology has made a lasting impact on the heart of a yet unbeliever/non-follower of Jesus.  I’m so glad it isn’t my responsibility to keep that score because it would probably drive me mad.  All I know is that without the Spirit of God revealing the truth of these “crazy” things to our hearts, those things will remain as foolishness.

1 Corinthians 2:14-16 tells us that without the Spirit within us, we can’t accept those kinds of things.  I find that exciting, because the natural conclusion is that a good way to know whether God’s spirit is in me is if I discern those foolish things of God to be true.

I’m all for intellect and logic…but not at the expense of truth.  I’m not going to argue and I’m not a debater.  I’ll leave that up to the Josh McDowells and the C.S. Lewises of our age.  My great proof of the resurrection and other equally foolish things is that God’s Spirit lives within me and reveals those things to me.  I’m the only one who needs to be convinced of this.  More importantly though, I have a transformed heart and it has changed me into something other than what I was.