Seedtime and Harvest

Through my adult years, I’ve developed a love for gardening. There’s just something about watching a bare plot of grass transform into a flower-filled haven, alive with fluttering butterflies, birds and bees. Or you just can’t beat popping that first luscious cherry tomato still warm from the summer sun into your mouth.

When my children were little, I tried to get them interested in helping me tend the garden. They would plant a few seeds or help me transplant tender young plants into the ground for a few minutes, but soon their backs would hurt or they would be hot or their attention would wander to a more thrilling activity. And weeding? I never had any willing participants when it was time to take back control of the
garden from invaders! Even at harvest time, they weren’t too enthused to help gather the vegetables. Biting chiggers, mosquitos and “itchy grass”–from all the weeds!–sent them slinking off to more fun activities. But, they were sure happy to help eat our tomatoes or beans or lettuce.

You know, I guess we adults aren’t that much different than kids when it comes to our “spiritual crops.” Most of us love to celebrate when a hard-fought spiritual victory has been won–a drug addiction beaten, a troublesome teen sees the light, a friend decides to follow Christ, or a cancer goes into remission. But I wonder, how many more victories could we be a part of if we were willing to “sow more seeds, pick more weeds and water the crops”?

Our verse from Genesis today tells us that there is a seedtime and a harvesttime. I think the time part can be a problem for all of us. It takes time and effort to hold someone accountable for an addiction, to stick by a teenager who is in “rebel-mode,” to meet at the inner-city center and develop relationships with the kids, or to hold someone’s hand while they’re throwing up from chemo. It’s hard, it’s messy and tough love isn’t a lot of fun. But, isn’t that what Jesus calls us to? Being there in the seedtime will increase the chance that we’ll get to see some harvests. Sometimes we plant a seed that someone else gets to harvest, or we get to harvest the seed that someone else planted! However God works it out, let’s think about planting a seed in a life today.

Prayer: Dear Lord, thank you for the times of sowing and harvesting that make up the cycle of life. Show us where you want us to sow some seeds this month. Amen.

“While the earth remains Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat,Winter and summer,

And day and night

Shall not cease.”

Genesis 8:22

Life-Long Learners

“For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”

Life-Long Learners

Jane VanOsdol

As a child, I remember the days toward the end of the summer were filled with activity and excitement. I always knew the summer would soon be drawing to an end when my mom would announce that it was time for “back to school shopping.” Back to school shopping meant a trip to Robertson’s Department Store (save a fourth, save a third, save a half in every department on every floor–I still remember their advertising song for remnant days!) in South Bend, Indiana. This was a favored activity in my life. Robertson’s was an old-fashioned department store about six stories high. My favorite floor was the girl’s department where we would head to pick out our clothes for the upcoming school year.

This was a bargaining feat, because with four girls my parents had several of us to clothe. I always had too many selections and had the difficult task of narrowing my choices down. After we purchased the clothes, we had the additional yearly delight of heading to the tea room for lunch, where we each got to pick out something yummy to eat. Lunching in the tea room let me pretend for awhile that I was quite cosmopolitan–a far cry from the small-town Michigan girl I was.

We also needed to make sure we had our school supplies, book bags (there weren’t back packs in the 60s and 70s) and lunch boxes ready to go. After accumulating all of these things, I can remember being so excited that I could barely sleep the night before school started. Off I went the next morning, ready to see my friends and crack open my new books.

As we prepare to start the 2009-2010 school year, I think about the excitement with which I approached my learning as a child. I still love to learn new things at this stage of my life. I have taken several online classes and studied subjects on my own. Part of that love of learning extends to the Bible. Even though the Bible was written a long time ago, it is still just as applicable to life today as it was when it was written. Just as 2 + 2 will always =4, so, too, will the words of the Bible always = truth.

As we send our children back to school this year, let’s use this time to also send ourselves back to school and continue our education in God’s Word.

Prayer: Dear Lord, we thank you for the education that we are so blessed to have. We pray for our students, teachers and administration–for your protection over them and your blessing upon them. We pray that Your truth will be preached this year in our schools, homes and churches. And we ask that we will never tire of being Your students. Amen.

Finish Your Pie!

“That I may proclaim with the voice of Thanksgiving,

And tell of Your wondrous works.

Lord, I have loved the habitation of Your house,

And the place where your glory dwells.” Psalm 26:7-8

Finish Your Pie!

Jane VanOsdol

When my daughter was little, she and I loved to turn on the Christian radio station and sing away as we were in the kitchen getting lunch or cleaning around the house. One day Amber was singing the words to a song with such gusto that I just had to stop and listen to her. Her little face was beaming as she belted out the words to our current favorite song. The chorus went like this:

“Come, Lord Jesus, come and get your bride.”

However, what came out of Amber’s lips was something entirely different:

“Come, Lord Jesus, come and finish your pie!”

I could barely contain my laughter over her 3-year-old version of the lyrics. And you know, I think I could see Jesus laughing and nodding, and I bet He would have loved a piece of that pie too!

What my daughter taught me that day was that we just need to utterly, unashamedly worship God. The joy and thankfulness oozed out of her as she sang her heart out to God. She didn’t care if the words were right or wrong, she just knew she was singing with her mommy to Jesus.

I had to stop and thank God for the blessing of my daughter and the blessing of being able to sing praise songs with her. Though our house was little and certainly nothing in it matched nor was very fashionable, it was a holy house because the Lord’s glory was dwelling there in her song. That moment taught me to look for God’s blessings wherever we are, to be thankful for moments shared with loved ones and our Savior.

As we enter this month of Thanksgiving, I’d like us to go on a blessings hunt. Let’s open our eyes to all the things big and small that we have to be thankful for. Let’s dwell on those things, (add them to our list on our Thanksgiving Blog entry if you have time) and like Amber did, let’s proclaim God’s wondrous works with a voice of Thanksgiving. He’s listening.

Prayer: Lord, we just lift our voices to join the chorus around the world singing Your praises. Thank You for our innumerable blessings. Thank You for your love. May we never stop thanking You. Amen.

Growing Pains

Growing Pains

Jane VanOsdol

When I was growing up, I remember that frequently at night my sister Mary would run to our mom, crying because her legs ached so badly. Mom would rub her legs and soothe her by saying that it was just “growing pains” that hurt so badly. While it didn’t make her legs stop hurting, it helped to know that there was something good that would be coming out of this painful process.

I think that we can also get growing painsin our spiritual lives too. Last month, we talked about new beginnings. Well, when we take that step of faith and begin a new process in our lives, somewhere in the process we experience growing pains. We may begin to question our decision. “What was I thinking?” we moan. “I’m not nearly smart enough to do this.” Or, “Why did I join the prayer ministry? My prayers are not nearly as eloquent as John’s are.” Maybe two weeks into our commitment to get up 30 minutes earlier to pray, we are overcome by fatigue and discouragement.

First of all, this is normal. The enemy does not want us making any headway into our spiritual lives, and he will throw obstacles along our path. However, this is also the time that God calls us to grow up. We need to put aside childish ways and thinking and persevere in that commitment, with the assurance that God will bless this new direction in our lives. Our growing pains will produce a harvest in our prayer lives.

Prayer: Dear Lord, thank you that you bring growth out of the painful processes in our lives. May we no longer be like children, but grow up in all things into You. Amen.