are you a carrot?

While we were picking peas, lettuce and tomatoes out of our backyard garden, one of my kids said: "Wow Mom! We are going to eat for FREE all summer!"   Little did he know how much money I spent on dirt, seeds and plants - not to mention that none of them would ever consent to a vegan diet! I love having a garden in my back yard - its so nice to go out and pick a fresh salad for lunch. But what would happen if those seeds sat and thought about how they were going to grow? If I planted tiny carrot seeds and they puzzled, "wait a minute - what am I? What am I going to do with my life?"   Or the yellow beans looked around and said, "I want to be an apple!"  And the cucumbers sprouting on the vine said "hey, what am I supposed to do with my life?" Vegetable seeds turn into the vegetable they came from, they don't question it. Sometimes we puzzle, "what does God want me to do with my life?!"  "How do I know what His will is for me?!" Its kind of a simple comparison, but God made you who you are. He made you with your likes and dislikes, your desires and interests.  He plants ideas inside of you, and all you need to do is live them out. When I was a teenager, I got a cushy job working in a neighbour's office. All I had to do was sit and type, and answer the phone.  I got paid more  money  than all my friends in their jobs, and I was home by 3:00. But I hated it. I stared out the window and thought of the summer wasting away while I was stuck inside.  It wasn't long before I quit, and took a job cutting lawns - much less pay, longer hours, but it was what I loved to do. So instead of asking "what is God's will for me?" What does He want me to do!??"  Who did he make you to be?  What do you like?   Open your ears to his voice and follow the doors that He opens for you. [Image]Because if a carrot decided not to be a carrot, what else would it be?!

draft

5/27/1

playing HOT & COLD with God

Simon, my youngest kid, came running through the kitchen and out the back door. Minutes later he was back inside, running through the house.
"What on earth are you doing?!" I yelled.
"I'm playing hot and cold with God!"
"What?"
But he was gone.   A few minutes later he ran back in with a huge grin, clutching his ball glove.
"See Mom?"
"Simon, what do you mean you're playing hot and cold with God?!"
I was starting to worry that he was having some sort of a serious problem.

"I asked God where my ball glove was, and He said 'lets play hot and cold'!"
"So I looked in the shed and asked him - 'cold or hot'? And he said 'cold', so I went in the house, and he kept telling me 'warmer...warmer...hotter...hot! And I looked down, and there it was under my bed!"
"See? God knows how to play Hot and Cold!"
He ran out the back door to play.

God playing 'Hot and Cold' with my kid is so cool to think about.  Simon didn't have to sit down all seriously, and have a deep prayer meeting about his ball glove. He didn't write down all his requests in his prayer journal or call his friends for support.  He just played a fun game with God, and I'm sure that God enjoyed it too. 
We are all individuals, God knows what goes on with us, our thoughts and feelings - he wants us to come to him as a kid - simply, being real, just wanting to play with our Dad.

manure on the road...

The town I live in has a lot of manure.  You have to watch your step when you're crossing the street or getting out of your car in a parking lot. We have a lot of mennonites in our town, who travel around in buggies pulled by horses.  The stoop and scoop law doesn't seem to apply to them.
One morning, I was at a garage sale in a neighboring town, in an area of grand houses with creative landscaping, and wide streets.  A horse and buggy pulled up, and a woman in a black dress jumped out. This was a subdivision far enough removed from the mennonite settlements, that a horse and buggy was an odd sight.  The owners of the home, and a few neighbours stared and talked excitedly about the horses, and stood watching them, until the horse decided to do his business in quite a large pile, right in front of their beautiful stamped concrete driveway.  
The mennonite lady was getting back in to her buggy, and horrified, the home owner chased after her :"Wait! Aren't you going to clean that up?" She gestured wildly at the manure in front of her house.
The mennonite lady gave her a strange look and laughed, "With what?"
"Dont you have a shovel?"
"No", she said, pulling her buggy away, and leaving the large mess behind.
The home owner and her neighbours were frantic.
"She is just going to leave that mess there?!" How incredible! How rude! How could she do that?"
They stood staring at the pile of manure.
"Oh! Disgusting!" "Its so stinky!" "What should we do with it?" How can we clean this up!?!?"
They discussed a few options, and one woman ran and got a shovel.  With loud exclamations of disgust, they carried it in a few trips, to the back corner behind one of the houses.

Sometimes people focus so much on sin, glare at it in disgust, try to figure out ways to get that sin out of their lives, and how it got there in the first place.    The sin becomes the big deal, and it seems to grow more and more out of control.  When we take our focus off of the sin, and look to God, He takes care of it. Its not up to us to defeat sin. Its up to us to focus on Jesus, surrender to His life in us, and let Him do the work that He wants to inside of us.

The funny thing, is that it poured rain later that day, and if the women would have left the pile of manure, it would have easily washed away.    Now they've got a big smelly pile in their own back yard!

the annoying cat

My son has a grey and white cat that seems to exist to annoy me. If I'm folding laundry, he jumps on the pile. If I'm working on the computer, he's up on the keyboard.  Hunting for something in a cupboard, he is right there, knocking everything over.  All day he follows me around the house, and if I leave, I have to be careful or he'll follow me down the street. There have been times I've been downtown, turned around and there was that cat following me again! Do you know how embarrasing it is to try to carry a snarling cat back home again?   Of course, when I complain to my son, the cat gets hugged, and I'm told that I'm just being mean.
There was a skit we used to do, that reminds me of that cat.   A student stood on stage with someone playing the charactre of Jesus.  They would interact with Jesus through the day, talking to him often. But then came some friends, inviting him to a party. Jesus started to follow him too, but they turned and ordered him to stay home. Jesus continued to follow, no matter how great the person demanded him to stay home.  Eventually, Jesus was dragged back into the house, where He was symbolically "nailed" by his hands and feet to make him stay.  
It was a point taken strongly by the students watching - that Jesus wants to be with you always, but that its your own choice where you take Him.

But that little skit had it ALL wrong!  Jesus doesn't walk beside you, acting as a friend who will hang out with you as you do all the "right" things, and then stay away from you when you are doing something He would not "approve" of.
Not at all.   Jesus lives IN you.  Colossians 1:27 says:  "And the mystery is that Christ lives in you, and he is your hope of sharing in God's glory."   He lives IN you and is with you, around you, being your very life.     Its not possible to remove Him for a time, so that you can go off without Him.  He is with you through every instant of your life.
I'm very glad to know this truth about God, and I'm very glad too, that it doesn't work the same with that cat!