GROWING SEEDS: Never Forget ......Why We Remember

 

Never Forget.....Why We Remember

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
John 15:13

It's Memorial Day Weekend.

As we hang our flag at half staff, welcome family and friends down for hot dogs, watermelon and homemade ice cream on the back porch, there are many families this weekend standing over a simple white cross in a military cemetery, remembering their loved ones who they waved goodbye to as they boarded a military plane and welcomed home in a wooden box.

I never lost a loved one in military combat......but I worry I've lost loved ones in spiritual combat. 

Memorial Day is, at its very core, about expressing gratitude for those who have lost their lives in service to our country.  After the death of thousands of soldiers following the Civil War, our country's leaders instituted this as a day to remember the ultimate price that was paid. 

Much like the ultimate price that Jesus made for us....for you and for me....His Friends, His Country, His Family.  He, like the guardians of our beloved country, lay His own life down to secure your freedom.....but not so you can live on this earth in peace from those who long to hurt us.....but from sin, death and hell. 

May we Never Forget......why we Remember.

GROWING SEEDS: Dear Graduate

  

Dear Graduate,

As you prepare to cross that long stage in front of your family and friends and eagerly close one chapter and open the next, there are a couple of things this old lady whose tassel was moved from the right to the left many years ago would like for you to know:

Be An Individual.  There is a reason you are alive.  This culture we live in makes it far too easy to look alike, act alike and believe alike.  Discover who YOU are.....and don't be afraid to be different.  That goofy graduation cap on your head is a ticket to life.  You can stand out and you can be the change you wish to see in the world.  Learn to fly solo......

Help Others.  We all have a calling in life.  And if there's one lesson I've learned over all others, it's that we are placed on this earth to help other people.  In the book The Original Human Dilemma (2004), supposedly in hell, they sit around a great pot, all hungry, because the spoons they hold are too long to bring the food to their mouths.  In heaven, people are sitting around the same pot with the same long spoons, but everyone is full. Why?  Because in heaven, everyone uses their long spoons to feed one another.

Don't Let Technology Be Your God.  As someone who is writing this to you from her laptop with her cell phone charging as she types with buds in her ears, I know a bit about this subject.  Techno-gadgets are merely distractions.....just look around you....even us old people have made our phones our god.  If you are going to make a difference.....put down the cell, take the buds out and spend less time in front of the screen.  Put Real Life First.

Place God as the Driver of Your Life.  Really hear this....NOTHING else matters if you don't have God as your Driver.  You are traveling down the Highway Of This World at a rapid speed.  GET OFF....NOW.  There are exit ramps along the way and they lead to a narrow, difficult and rarely traveled path.  But this path is unlike the highway that leads to certain death and an eternity in hell....the narrow path leads you HOME.  Yes....you will most likely arrive home sore, scratched and tired from the bumps along the way, but you will LIVE to see Home. 

And be happy......as God intended you to be!

Dear Graduate.....

 Yesterday, as we were re-siding the boathouse, I noticed what looked like an old birds nest up in the eaves.  I reached up and pulled it down and found this....

What a surprise!!  I put it gently back up in the eaves and we continued on with our work.

The next day, I just had to see what was going on in that nest and found this....

It reminded me of the kids graduating and getting ready to "leave the nest" to start a new chapter in their lives.  It reminded me of my own journey of leaving the nest 1000 years ago.....the mistakes made and the lessons learned.  And much like these baby birds who are blindly starting this life, so are those graduating from the comfort of depending on others (parents, teachers, etc.). 

Please appease me with one last piece of advice.....



Dear Graduate,

As you prepare to cross that long stage in front of your family and friends and eagerly close one chapter and open the next, there are a couple of things this old lady whose tassel was moved from the right to the left many years ago would like for you to know:

Be An Individual.  There is a reason you are alive.  This culture we live in makes it far too easy to look alike, act alike and believe alike.  Discover who YOU are.....and don't be afraid to be different.  That goofy graduation cap on your head is a ticket to life.  You can stand out and you can be the change you wish to see in the world.  Learn to fly solo......

Help Others.  We all have a calling in life.  And if there's one lesson I've learned over all others, it's that we are placed on this earth to help other people.  In the book The Original Human Dilemma (2004), supposedly in hell, they sit around a great pot, all hungry, because the spoons they hold are too long to bring the food to their mouths.  In heaven, people are sitting around the same pot with the same long spoons, but everyone is full. Why?  Because in heaven, everyone uses their long spoons to feed one another.

Don't Let Technology Be Your God.  As someone who is writing this to you from her laptop with her cell phone charging as she types with buds in her ears, I know a bit about this subject.  Techno-gadgets are merely distractions.....just look around you....even us old people have made our phones our god.  If you are going to make a difference.....put down the cell, take the buds out and spend less time in front of the screen.  Put Real Life First.

Place God as the Driver of Your Life.  Really hear this....NOTHING else matters if you don't have God as your Driver.  You are traveling down the Highway Of This World at a rapid speed.  GET OFF....NOW.  There are exit ramps along the way and they lead to a narrow, difficult and rarely traveled path.  But this path is unlike the highway that leads to certain death and an eternity in hell....the narrow path leads you HOME.  Yes....you will most likely arrive home sore, scratched and tired from the bumps along the way, but you will LIVE to see Home. 

And be happy......as God intended you to be!

GROWING SEEDS: The Gift of Mom

 

"Jesus' MOTHER stood at the foot of the cross.......
Jesus saw his mother and the disciple He loved standing near her. 
He said to His mother, "Woman, here is your son." 
Then to the disciple, "Here is your mother." 
From that moment, the disciple accepted her as his own MOTHER." 
John 19:25-27

I love that even in His darkest moment, Jesus made sure His Mom was taken care of after He was gone.  He knew that an arrow was piercing her own soul as much as it was His side, so He gifted His Mom to John, the disciple He loved and trusted.

My mom died two weeks before Mothers Day.  I dreaded going through that weekend without her.....I was childless and now I was motherless.  But then I received a call.  A call from a lady named Pam in Winnsboro.......a lady I had met over the years as I delivered Meals on Wheels to her own elderly mother......and Pam wanted to share her mother with me that weekend.

And so she did.

She invited me to Sunday lunch with the whole family......to celebrate this lady she called Mom and I called Jewel.  She gifted me with love.....she gifted me a Mom. 

It was probably one of the kindest things anyone has ever done for me.  She knew my heart was piercing; aching to feel the touch of a wrinkled hand touching my cheek....longing to smell the Estee Lauder perfume that always arrived moments prior to Mom entering a room.  She knew my heart had a crack in it.....so she handed me her heart.

The Gift of a Mom......I think God had it right creating her from the rib of man....the rib always keeps the heart safe.

The Gift of Mom

 

 

"Jesus' MOTHER stood at the foot of the cross.......
Jesus saw his mother and the disciple He loved standing near her. 
He said to His mother, "Woman, here is your son." 
Then to the disciple, "Here is your mother." 
From that moment, the disciple accepted her as his own MOTHER." 
John 19:25-27

I love that even in His darkest moment, Jesus made sure His Mom was taken care of after He was gone.  He knew that an arrow was piercing her own soul as much as it was His side, so He gifted His Mom to John, the disciple He loved and trusted.

My mom died two weeks before Mothers Day.  I dreaded going through that weekend without her.....I was childless and now I was motherless.  But then I received a call.  A call from a lady named Pam in Winnsboro.......a lady I had met over the years as I delivered Meals on Wheels to her own elderly mother......and Pam wanted to share her mother with me that weekend.

And so she did.

She invited me to Sunday lunch with the whole family......to celebrate this lady she called Mom and I called Jewel.  She gifted me with love.....she gifted me a Mom. 

It was probably one of the kindest things anyone has ever done for me.  She knew my heart was piercing; aching to feel the touch of a wrinkled hand touching my cheek....longing to smell the Estee Lauder perfume that always arrived moments prior to Mom entering a room.  She knew my heart had a crack in it.....so she handed me her heart.

The Gift of a Mom......I think God had it right creating her from the rib of man....the rib always keeps the heart safe.

GROWING SEEDS: Patiently Endure, Slave

 

"For God is pleased with you when you do what you know is right and

patiently endure unfair treatment."

1 Peter 2:19

We've all been there.  Treated wrongly for something we didn't do.....almost wishing you might-as-well-have-done-it-since-you-were-getting-blamed-for-it, after all. 

Think about the last time this happened to you.  Think about the last time YOU did this TO some one.  Kinda makes your eye twitch a bit, doesn't it?

It's time for a little confession: I've been that person doing the unfair treatment that Peter is speaking of.  Yep, for a host of many reasons....some of which had titles such as Insecurity, Pride, Anger, Resentment....I was the person he warned the early Christians about in his first letter.  I cringe typing those words for you to read...... 

But it's true......of all of us.  We wear masks that are so convincing we actually convince ourselves we are Justified, Deserving and Right to treat others as inferior to ourselves.  We "act" as though we are better, smarter, prettier, more qualified.  I find it quite ironic that in my Bible, the title to this series of verses is "Instructions For Slaves". 

A few years ago, my friend Stephen Marshall and I went Photohopping with our cameras around Franklin County.  We have this strange attraction to cemeteries and in his earlier cemetery travels, he had come across where a Franklin County family had buried their slaves in the back of their family cemetery.  As we stood there looking at the huge black cross that drew an invisible line between Slave and Owner, we couldn't help but think how much this family must have loved their slaves and treated them fairly......to bury them with the family, after all, was a big deal. 

And Peter goes on a few verses later, instructing the slaves with these words, "For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you.  He is your example, and you must follow in His footsteps." 1 Peter 2:21

I have a feeling that maybe....just maybe.....I was the slave Peter was referring to.......