Well it sure has been a long time since I sat down to write. Lots of ideas have filtered through the brain, but by the time life gives me a moment.....well...you know how it goes. Those ideas are either lost, or seem really irrelevant. Currently, I am trying to decide if I can still organize the ideas I have had lately, or if they are even relevant.
I have been thinking about faith and obedience lately. Specifically about setting your mind and heart to do something that you believe God wants you to do, even if it appears that there is no way to accomplish it. We, Joe and I, have had lots of opportunities to over the years to see God work out seemingly impossible circumstances when we did set our hearts and minds to pursue what seemed like either unreachable God inspired dreams, or obey what we believed were God prompted directions. There are too many examples to describe, but what I can say is that if we had been unwilling or too unbelieving to step out in faith, we would probably would have spent our last 35 years raising a much smaller family in Pennsylvania.
Sometimes obedience is exciting and adventurous, and sometimes it is full of the mundane and can feel like tether when your desires are pulling you in another direction. Its those times that I know I have to trust that God knows better and is at work to refine those desires and even perhaps fulfill them in His timing and not mine. The challenge is always to be willing to act when He opens the door, but not to go prying open doors that He hasn't opened yet.The older I get, the more practiced I am at waiting, but still am amazed at my own impatience.
There is always a period of incubation when an idea or desire or prompt is growing, but all the pieces just don't seem to fit together yet. In my garden I have so many things beginning to grow as the spring days unfold. Some will grow quickly, bud, flower, and bear fruit all in one season. The instant gratification plants. Others will take a year to put down good roots and get well established before rewarding me with some beautiful flower or good food. Still others, the trees that will bear abundant fruit for many many years will grow ever so slowly and become deeply rooted and strong to bear all the bounty they are intended to produce. God has so many ways of teaching us if we are willing to observe all that He has created. In the end, just as the sun and the rain are so necessary for growth in a garden, its His grace that gives us patience and that produces good results in our lives.
