Saturday, March 26, 2011

Falling Down Healthy

I can’t remember where I bought it – my gorgeous, large-leafed dieffenbachia. But I can tell you when. We moved to South Carolina two years ago and I had to leave all my beloved houseplants back in Virginia. Don't get too sad; know that I left them all in good homes with friends who care.

Before you plant/animal people start berating me for having “dumb cane” in my house, let me tell you that yes, I am aware that the leaves can cause numbness and are toxic. But first, my grandchildren are well over the age of 5 and, frankly, if I catch them chewing the leaves of my houseplants, I think we have much more serious issues to address. And my dogs aren’t in the least interested in them.

I love this plant. I think my affinity for them goes back to the years we were stationed in Hawaii. Steve and I bought a “trunk” of one at a flea market. It was literally a stub with a couple of limbs on either side, the diameter being about seven inches. The man who sold it to us for less than five dollars assured us that it would come out and grow to be beautiful. With a little bit of a sense that we’d bought magic beans, we took it home and potted it. Within weeks, shoots of leaves began to sprout. When we left Hawaii (and our beloved dieffenbachia), it stood over five feet tall, with leaves over twenty inches in length.

We’ve not had that success since, but we do seem to have a knack for growing them. The plant I bought two years ago when we came here is absolutely beautiful with healthy, large leaves.

Imagine my disappointment when I walked through the great room yesterday and found it lying on its side in the pot! I immediately thought of root rot, usually caused by overwatering. I’ve loved more than one plant to death and I figured I’d done it again.

I was pleased when I felt into the dirt and found strong, healthy roots. The problem is that the plant needs a bigger pot and the roots need to be planted deeper. (I’m so pleased you’re already getting the message on this one!) As I told you, all my lessons learned lately by listening or reading seem to point to the need for healthy roots and being firmly attached to the vine of Jesus for spiritual health and in order to produce good fruit.

About three months ago right after the New Year, I was “soaring with eagles.” My Bible studies were going well and I was doing some writing. My Christmas things were pretty well packed away. My house was in order and my calendar was under control. I was on Weight Watchers and the pounds were melting away. I felt like I knew what God’s will was for my life for the next several weeks and I was feeling confident. I was on top of the world and I was in control!

Then wham! I got zapped with a bronchial infection combined with insurance issues and a doctor who had left town. I carried a chest and head cold for two weeks and left to go on a cruise with not much hope. Asking for prayer was on my “to do” list along with unpack capris and pick up EmergenC and NyQuil.

And all along I was moving farther away from Him and repeating my mantra, “I can do this, I just need to be a grown-up.” So I coughed and sniffled my way across the Caribbean and landed back in South Carolina with pretty much the same cold but with far fewer reserves. I was beaten down physically and completely too tired for praying or getting into scripture. I wanted nothing but rest and sleep. And had I not been so tired, I’d have taken the time to ask God why, oh why, had He not taken care of this?

I ended up with a case of the flu and an illness that stretched out well over six weeks. But more than that, I carried a sense of resentment that God had not chosen to heal me more quickly. How had I, a “healthy plant” been laid so low so quickly? Turns out my leaves looked fine but my roots were not planted deep enough. I was reading scripture and praying, but mainly I was living life under my own steam, going through all the correct motions.

I was flying so high I had forgotten that the updrafts come completely from God. I had abandoned the truth that I am totally dependent on His grace and mercy. All He asks in return is that I love Him and depend on Him completely. So I’m continuing the prayer and Bible study, but I’m stretching my roots deeply enough to take advantage of His love, care, and protection.

Ezekiel 17:5, 6; Romans 11:18

He took some of the seed of your land and put it in fertile soil. He planted it like a willow by abundant water, and it sprouted and became a low, spreading vine. Its branches turned toward him, but its roots remained under it. So it became a vine and produced branches and put out leafy boughs...Do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.

Friday, March 25, 2011

One Tiny Branch

I jumped the gun this year. I bought hanging baskets and bedding plants a couple of weeks before I was supposed to. Our weather reminds me of that – yesterday’s hard wind and today’s cooler temps. I think we’re safe though, far from my sweet Virginia friends who are expecting snow this Sunday.

When we bought the house, we fell in love with the smallish live oak that had been planted in the back corner of our yard. It was our little piece of real South Carolina. We’ve been amazed at how quickly it has grown. The shade it produces gets us through the summer. My oasis from the heat, it shelters a pretty flower garden and bench. It was strategically planted so that the sun sets behind it and we get relief from the late afternoon summer glare. I captured some Spanish moss that had been set free by some landscapers and now it truly is our reminder of where we live.

Our oak is a beautiful, dignified and impressive tree. Yet as I sit on my porch this morning looking out, my eye is continually drawn to a place close to the trunk about three feet from the ground. There hangs a beautiful impatiens basket filled with fuchsia, pale pink and white. I suspended it from a small branch yesterday and it has completely stolen my attention from the tree.

As so often happens, lately the devotionals I read, the sermons I hear, books, Sunday school lessons and Bible study all tend to repeat messages about being a part of the vine, pruning, deep roots down into water, having sustenance during drought, etc. And as almost always happens, I notice the trend and begin looking for some great plan that God has for my life pertaining to what I’ve heard. I’m getting the idea that He just wants me to get the point!

As He sometimes does, this morning He’s used my quiet porch time to do that. Although the oak is impressive and some of its branches are sturdy and strong, the one little branch that’s doing the work of holding my basket is the one that’s blessing me these days. It’s the branch that’s bearing fruit.

Do you sometimes wish you were doing something grand and inspirational? Do you wonder if anyone’s noticing or if you’re invisible? Know that fixing a taco salad, making sure there’s clean underwear, driving kids to any of the assortment of things they have to attend, just loving someone with a hug or a smile – these things are a bouquet of beauty to someone. I’m resisting going down a “bloom where you’re planted” road, but it’s true, isn’t it? God’s will for our lives usually involves doing the next chore, making the next phone call, wiping the next nose and doing it with a cheerful heart. You are showing Jesus' love in the little things. You are somebody’s fruit basket!

John 15:16, 17

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Perspective

My computer crooks its finger and invites me in. The wallpaper picture from Alaska whispers peace with deep teal water, dark purple mountains, and a frozen waterfall. At least I think they’re mountains! I can’t remember the landscape when we took this particular picture – we took hundreds.

So as I stared into it the other day, my imagination left the ship and began to climb up the deep gulley where the water started down. Then I realized I didn’t know if I could make the top in a few steps or whether it would take weeks! I looked at the evergreen mass and tried to decide whether I was looking at moss – in which case I’m up in a snap – or trees. If it’s trees, I’m giving up and climbing back on the cruise ship because there’s no way I’m going to make it.

I had no perspective. At least I thought that was the word. So I looked it up.

“The appearance of objects, buildings, etc., relative to each other, as determined by their distance from the viewer.” There were no birds, buildings or people to give me an idea of what I was looking at. And I realized that without a constant, something to count on, I was floundering.

“A visible scene, especially one extending to a distance; vista.” When I’m on a trip and driving long hours and distances, I make it through by fastening my attention on some sign or exit down the road. Without them, we’d all be sleeping drivers! When I was a child and the interstates had yet to be built, every trip was an adventure because there were interesting landmarks and bizarre “World’s Largest Egg Carton”-type stops with souvenir shops. Then the interstate came along and the drive no longer mattered. The trip was all about the destination. We had lost perspective.

“A view over some distance in space or time.” We all leap through days and months of our lives by fixing on the next vacation or event. Without that timemark life loses its perspective – one day blends into the next and boredom threatens. Or we run so fast that we wake up one day and another three years has gone. Young people think they’ll never die; old people seeing it coming faster and faster.

“A mental view or prospect.” Proper perspective puts us in our place, timewise. We are a breath that shows up on a cold wind. “You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath.” (Psalm 39:5) If I’m looking merely at my time here on earth, it’s gone so quickly I might as well not even have been here.

“The faculty of seeing all the relevant data in a meaningful relationship.” However…my life matters. I have important work to do here. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." (Ephesians 2:10) Work that was planned for me before I even set foot on this earth. “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." (Psalm 139:16)

And I am a child of the King, the Creator of the Universe! “For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will….” (Ephesians 1:4-5)

My perspective? Peace for now; joy for later. Everlasting joy in the presence of my God!

(Definitions were taken from www.dictionary.com: Random House Dictionary, 2011; Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 10th Edition, 2009.)

Monday, March 14, 2011

Sounds of Spring

The sun warms the grass and the buds. I stumble over furniture for lack of sleep. I set my clocks forward yesterday and I will adjust for a couple of weeks.

Not really that big of a change, the daylight savings time affects me mightily every year. It honestly is my least favorite day of the year. I have a suspicion sleep means way too much to me. I won’t bother quoting the Proverbs about laziness. Because truly, when I’m awake I use my time fairly productively. I just like sleep!

The buzz of crickets hums a little louder every night. The bullfrogs are croaking. Spring sounds are my favorite. Though fall thrills me more than any other season, cold weather drives a silence ahead of it.

Birds make up the majority of the music I hear from my back porch. (Three mourning doves are eating birdseed just outside my window as I write.) However, one sound makes me smile more than any other – a yodel deep from my coonhound’s throat when she sees her first spring rabbit.

A coonhound on the scent in the woods will bark, bawl, chop bark and finally bay when it trees its prey. I know my coonhound’s got it in her, but I’m not in a hurry for her to discover all those voices, nor are my neighbors.

But the rabbits in our neighborhood have elaborate plans to draw her out. When we think they’re burrowed down in a hole somewhere away from the cold night air, they’re actually leaning over blueprints spread out on a stump in the woods.

Chloe has a round electronic parameter. She knows her limits and she doesn’t push them. The rabbits know them as well. They come as far as the edge and wiggle their eyebrows and ears at her. She’ll stand taunting from other dogs, golf carts and squirrels, but the rabbits test her dignity.

They generally hang out in the azaleas across the back of the yard. And that’s where she heads when I open the door. I love to watch her run after them. She comes close, until she has to skid into the bushes because she can’t go any farther.

Will she ever catch one? I suspect not. Only once did she get the opportunity. Before the electronic parameter, we would put her out on a lead. One time she broke out of her collar and took off after a rabbit. He ran; she chased, around and around a group of three neighboring houses, until Steve interfered with a golf cart. I’m absolutely certain that’s what she’s reliving when she’s napping and whimpering with all four legs running.

(If you’d like to read more, see “Life in the Wild” from July 2009.)

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Making It Complicated

Our Bible study group is listening for the voice of God. Sounds intriguing and a little out there, doesn’t it? It’s funny that we don’t hesitate to use the words “supernatural” and “mystical” to describe the dark arts. But growing up in a 1950’s Southern Baptist church, I was not encouraged in any way to step outside our flannel-board Sunday School box.

But God Almighty is most certainly supernatural, powerful, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent – in short, awesome. To think that He might be interested in whispering to my heart thrills me no end. We are studying “Discerning the Voice of God” by Priscilla Shirer. And we are learning that God does speak but that we must prepare ourselves to hear Him.

Today we talked about seeking His will in our lives. And a very wise young woman said, “It seems to me that He just wants us to love him. And that if we seek a relationship with Him and love Him, the rest will come. We will be in His will and He will guide and use our decisions to His glory.” (Even though I’ve used quotes, I’m sure those weren’t the exact words, but close.)

So here I sit on my back porch, talking to Him and most certainly loving Him. And it seems too simple and way too easy. Because He is easy to love, isn’t He? And I think, this can’t be it. What about Bible study, and works, and memorizing Scripture, and loving others better than myself, and all that instruction I receive and notes I take and reading I do? Can it be that easy?

And I rebel against that...

Outside the corner of my porch stands a very large holly tree, tall as our house. It used to literally hug the screened porch. I love the tree but I hated the fact that it seemed to be depositing creepy crawlies onto my porch.

So when we had the porch glassed in and the construction guys told me a little nervously that they had to cut it way back, I was all for it. They assured me it would remain healthy and it has. They also assured me that it would grow back and it has not. But that’s okay!

Have you ever seen a kid’s ant farm? That kind of cross section of dirt where you can watch them work? That’s what my holly looks like. If you stand in my back yard and look toward the porch, you see a nice round holly. If you sit where I’m sitting, you see half a tree, almost as if it’s been cut top to bottom right down the middle.

As a result, I can watch a multitude of little birds of all kinds who live in its branches. And that’s exactly what made me understand why this “love” situation with God is hard for me to accept. It's too much! I sit here and I enjoy the peace, the wind chimes, the quiet and the birds and I talk to God. And I am amazed and grateful that He has provided this for me. And all He asks in return is that I love Him.


So I will continue to pursue this precious time with Him and wonder that He could love me so much. He really is all I need.

Matthew 22:36-38
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.”