Have you ever started watching a TV series in the middle of the series and had the feeling that you were missing something? You might watch the show and then go back and watch the re-runs so that you can catch up on what you missed. Or you might just decide to not watch it at all because you missed the beginning.
My journey didn't begin yesterday. I only started writing about it yesterday. Therefore, I will not be starting at the beginning. I will be writing about where I am at today. Unfortunately, life is not like a TV series. I just can't stop it and go back and re-play my yesterdays. If I go back to the beginning, I will never get caught up. Therefore, my journey that I will take you on will be from this day forward.
And this day was indeed a challenging one on my journey. As I mentioned in my introduction, my goal is to think positive thoughts. This morning, I failed. One of my goals is to have more patience. I lost my patience with someone I love. I can rationalize it in my mind and say that I had very good reasons to be upset. That is negative thinking. I would like to be able to react in a very different way in the future. This is something that I will need to work on.
I am always amazed at the way God works in our lives. I don't believe in coincidences. I believe that God pairs events in our lives together at just the right times, but it still never ceases to amaze me. Some of these events are rather large. Some, like the following, are small, but no less significant. The following was on the back of our bulletin at church this morning:
"Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up." -- Galatians 6:7-9 NRSV
The scripture itself didn't jump out at me. But there was a commentary written by John Wight who is a Seventy of the Community of Christ that followed the scripture.
"I have enjoyed planting gardens since I was a child. But as I have gotten older, I have found less and less time to indulge in this pleasure. Last year, in my desire to plant some peas, I pulled out an envelope of seeds that were left over from two to three years earlier. They looked awful, but I decided a seed is a seed and planted them anyway. Some of them came up; most didn't. The ones that did were sickly and produced few peas. Indeed, I reaped what I had sown.
The experience brought to mind the scripture passage from Galatians - a scripture I have heard and used primarily as a negative reminder that if we choose lesser, self-centered behaviors, we will experience short-lived, lesser results. It is a shame that this scripture has been relegated to such use, focused on the negative. When we choose instead to practice godly behaviors (such as those demonstrated by Jesus), wonderful, long-lasting blessings can be harvested. Had I chosen to "not grow weary" rather than take the easy way out when planting those peas, my family could have enjoyed a crop of healthy vegetables.
What a wonderful, positive promise this scripture offers us. Rather than using the phrase, "Well, you reap what you sow," as a negative, perhaps we should joyfully proclaim, "Yes, we can reap what we sow" and then strive to plant healthy, godly "seeds" rather than the withered, sickly ones of self-possession and self-indulgence."
It is amazing how God gave this commentary to me about turning a negative into a positive right in the middle of my journey to do the same with my life.
No comments:
Post a Comment