I was working outside in the backyard the other day when I thought about this little story about weeds:
“The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well. The slaves of the householder came to him and said, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this’. His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest, then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning, but gather the wheat unto my barn.” ‘ ”
Some of us might be good seeds and blossom into wheat despite all of the “weeds” around us. Some of us might actually be the weeds in the field. Consider your life in this world as one growing season in the whole scheme of things. You have until “harvest” time to get your act together. When that day comes will you be harvested and brought into the barn or burned by the “farmer?”
Give it some thought, eh?
Man, I have had a lot of anxiety lately. We move into our house on Monday (March 24th) and it seems like I can’t get things prepared fast enough. Jaci works 55 to 60 hours a week and sometimes I feel like she isn’t doing her fair share (and I know this is not the case…she is trying really hard with the time that she has). It seems like I can’t get up early enough to get everything done that I want too before work. It seems like wedding plans are never ending. I feel as if I don’t spend enough time with friends and family. Jaci gets really upset when I get so nervous and on edge all the time. She thinks I am going to get another ulcer and that was REALLY bad news the first time it happened. My health insurance is giving me crap and I keep having to put them in their place over a dermatologist visit four months ago. I feel like Jaci and I are spending more money than we should lately. I got stood up by a hero of mine that I was suppose to meet for lunch (he couldn’t help it, his daughter was sick, but still). Things are getting busy at church. I ordered my M.I.A. album on Amazon like a week ago and it still isn’t here. My dog has been driving me crazy with her anxiety (doesn’t like all the boxes and clutter around here…she is very confused). I didn’t get to send my Nephew an Easter basket this year and I feel soooooo bad about that. I have been working really hard on creating the ultimate March Madness bracket. I have been in a very heated discussion thread in a conservative politics blog called Braden’s Corner. He posted one little post about high gas prices and he blamed environmentalists and it just set me off the deep end. So, rather than be productive the last couple of days I have been over on his blog giving him piece after piece of my mind and it is doing me absolutely no good to get myself riled up over the debate with him like I am. He can be a real jerk and I am letting him get the best of me with his negative attitude. Don’t get me wrong, he writes a great blog and I really enjoy its content; it is just that he ALWAYS has to be right and if he is wrong he tends to ignore your facts and takes very personal jabs at people in order to avoid the subject…UGH! I will be writing a blog very shortly about my love/hate relationship with politics and how my feud with Braden is a classic example of it.
So, needless to say I am freaking out about a whole bunch of things lately that I really just need to let go of and cast upon God through prayer. There is no sense in holding onto all these things and making myself miserable when God desperately wants to help. I have a tiny black notebook that I carry with me wherever I go and I write down almost EVERYTHING in. I cross things off as I have completed them or if I no longer think about them. Lately it seems like I am doing a lot more writing than crossing off, but that is beside the point. I wrote out PSALMS 55:22 on the inside cover to remind myself every time I open up my task/thought booklet in order to say a mini prayer. No matter what I get accomplished and what I fail to make enough time for and don’t get accomplished, God will sustain me. He won’t let me down. Anxiety is so unnecessary when I have my best friend on my side. Lighten up already, Andy. Enjoy the ride!
“Job says, ‘I am innocent, but God denies me justice. Although I am right, I am considered a liar; although I am guiltless, his arrow inflicts an incurable wound.’ “
Job is feeling a whole bunch of torment and feeling sorry for himself. He is crying out for God to give him some explanation or for God to show him some way out of his misery. Then, out of freaking nowhere this guy named Elihu shows up. We have no idea where he came from but he shows up and just starts talking to Job and Job’s friends and seems to know exactly what has been going on. The verse above is when Elihu starts to quote Job and examine just what in the heck Job is doing wrong in his approach to God.
Job feels like a lot of us feel. “I live pretty good…I haven’t really done anything wrong lately…I think I deserve a little prosperity here!!!” We always think about ourselves and act like just because we mind our Ps and Qs, God owes us a good life. And then if something goes wrong we sit there and ask God “Why the heck did I deserve this??? Me of all people! Come on! I am being good!!!” It’s like, Heaven forbid bid God ever deny us of anything if we are being good!
Just because we do good things and we live our lives as good people doesn’t mean that we are entitled to be blessed and have a great life 100% of the time. We learn a lot about ourselves when we go through trials and tribulations and God inflicts a certain degree of pain and suffering upon us in order for us to become closer to Him! If you go around b***hing and moaning when things get tough, then you really aren’t getting the big picture of what God wants you to do with your life.
Yes, you need to be good and live your life the best you can. But just because you do that doesn’t mean the man upstairs owes you anything. It is the other way around. You owe Him everything. Tell him “thanks” for the good and the bad.
Feel free to comment below. You may need to click on the article’s title (headline) in order to open up the comment field below. You may also e-mail me any thoughts you might have to ahubbard13@bloginyourface.com and if I like what you have to say I will post it alongside this blog. If I don’t like what you have to say I may also post it alongside this blog along with my personal comments on where you should shove it!
“ ’For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,’ says the Lord your Redeemer.”
We see God get mad at His people all the time when we read the Bible. And when He gets mad, he sometimes doesn’t think things through as much as He should and often makes quick judements and strikes out on us not realizing that He is doing more harm than good. Does this sound familiar to anyone? I know that I get mad at people in traffic and I am quick to cuss them out. I know that sometimes I get mad at Jaci and I throw mini temper tantrums and cross my arms and won’t talk to her until I realize how childish I am being.
The difference between God and a lot of us though, is that He is usually pretty quick to forgive us after He blows off some steam. In this verse He has commanded the Israelites to be holy and has even gone as far as to send them prophets and lay down the law very plainly and clearly. But NOOOOOOO, they don’t give a crap. They keep on sinning despite God giving his darndest in trying to make them act properly.
Have you ever tried to tell someone in your life something OVER and OVER, but no matter how much you try to explain it, they keep on screwing up and acting like they don’t hear a word you are saying? It is frustrating isn’t it? God gets frustrated about the same things!
But He doesn’t give up on the Israelites. He forgives them and comes back around and shows them compassion. And through Jesus, that forgivingness (not sure if that is a word or not) and compassion still show today. If God can get mad and blow up at people for an instant, than I suppose it is OK for us to do that as well. The important thing is for us to REAPPROACH the situation and to say we are sorry for losing our patience. If any of you have children of your own, I think you realize the importance of this.
It is OK to lose your temper. But after you calm down, try to remember the hurtful words that you used on someone else and apologize for those words and let them know WHY you lost your temper with them. Humans are created in God’s image and humans lose their cool just like God! It really is OK as long as you don’t leave it at that!!! Learn from your temper tantrums you big baby!!!
Feel free to comment below. You may need to click on the article’s title (headline) in order to open up the comment field below. You may also e-mail me any thoughts you might have to ahubbard13@bloginyourface.com and if I like what you have to say I will post it alongside this blog. If I don’t like what you have to say I may also post it alongside this blog along with my personal comments on where you should shove it!