Changing Plans on Rainy Days

The beauty of a rainy day is that you can ease up just a bit.  Slowing down to listen to rain pattering on the roof or watching drops slide down window glass is soothing somehow.  Making a favorite hot drink to sip improves the moment.  Be aware.  Be present.  Be receptive to God.  Listen.

Sometimes we Americans rush into the day, believing that productivity and performance matter most.  What can I check off my To-Do-List?  Daily goals help to move us forward, but we need not be bound by them.  

Sometimes changing plans free us to be somewhere unexpected with someone unknown. How open are we to the hand of God rearranging our schedules and our lives? 

• Do we complain at our treatment as did Elijah after battling the prophets of Baal?
• Do we refuse the mission and run like Jonah?  
• Do we submit like Mary, mother of Jesus?  
• Do we stop on the road like Paul to discard the life of persecutor to become the evangelist?  

What does embracing God's mission look like for you in this time of global pandemic?  When nations spin information and struggle to provide food, shelter, education, and jobs, what does your neighbor need from you today?  

Could you sit and listen to someone's doubts and fears?  Could you pray, call, send a card, or share a word of encouragement or forgiveness?  Do the people in your world need laughter or a helping hand or something else entirely?

"Grace and peace be yours in abundance."  1 Pet. 1.2

"... though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials." 1 Pet. 1.6

Fall Gardening

 

Dedicated to Janet.

It is good to be outdoors in the sunshine, doing good work among plants.  Gardens can be peaceful places of quiet and beauty.  Wearing old, comfortable garb is one of the perks.  You may rearrange pots and plants to create a new look in a familiar space.  Creativity springs to life.  Perhaps you'll be inspired to pull out paper and paints?

Forget the techno stress of the printer that no longer prints.  Absorb beauty.  Look skyward for soaring hawks. Listen to chirping crickets and woodpeckers. Watch squirrels dash about hiding nuts. Exhale stress.  Inhale peace.  

If you're the type who likes thrills and mysteries, gardening is what you want.  There is the surprise skunk sauntering along the patio at dusk.  There are deer tracks by missing blossoms.  If you prefer a challenging workout, try digging up a stump with shovel and hatchet or cutting down a hillside of weeds gone wild.  Build physical stamina and perseverance; gardeners are hearty folk after all.

In these autumn months, don't miss out on the joys of gardening:  burying bulbs around the yard, trimming trees, and the like.  

We are made in God's image.  God was the original gardener.  Let's follow his example, abide in him, and be fruitful this fall.

"And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed."  Gen. 2:8