Jesus teaches his apostles to brush the dust off their feet if they come to a town that won’t receive them or listen to them. What does that mean for us?
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Month: February 2021
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Mardi Gras Reflections
Oh, what a difference a year makes! We are getting closer to that time. You know the one I mean. That day when Covid began to hit our shores, when we could no longer think about the virus being “over there” in China or Spain or Italy. When we looked at those countries being on full lock-down and thought, Thank goodness that’s not us having to do that.
But we’re not there, yet. As I look back on Mardi Gras a year ago, it’s with happy thoughts. It was a gorgeous winter day, much like today. The sun was out and it was warmer than it had been. That brought an energetic vibe to everyone we encountered. My older daughter was in her first semester of in-person classes at the local community college as part of her dual enrollment program. That left my younger daughter and me with a few hours to while away, often sitting in the library and knocking out her classes.
On this particular day, completely for kicks and giggles, she and I were wearing Mardi Gras beads that I had from a party several years ago. The day was so gorgeous that we couldn’t stand being stuck in the library after weeks of cold, grey weather. (Sound familiar?) We decided to take a walk around downtown Wilmington, going down to Cape Fear Spice Merchants and exploring various small shops in between.
I won’t bore you with every place we visited. We dropped in on a local bookseller who asked about my soap business. When I told her I was writing a book, she said to let her know when it’s out so she can buy it and stock it. I wasn’t prepared for that! I just happen to like this lady and her shop, but hello, elevator pitch–before my book was even finished! We explored a new-to-us small grocery with bulk spices and herbs and got ice cream (yeah, it was that warm). We smiled at people and said “hi.” We held hands and acted a little silly and just had a wonderful time.
As we’re home today, nowhere near downtown, we remember that day fondly. It was certainly a very different Mardi Gras from what today looks like. A lot of those businesses are operating under very limited hours. The bookshop only allows browsing a couple of days a week. By all accounts, downtown is more like a ghost town with very few people out and about on their lunch hours since so many people are working from home or have lost their jobs altogether.
Mardi Gras–Fat Tuesday–is the day before Lent, a time of sacrifice and reflection before Easter. When we’ve sacrificed so much that we used to take for granted, things like communal worship, hugs, social time, even sitting in the library to read, it’s hard to think of what else we can sacrifice. Some people have had to sacrifice family time (thank you front-line workers!) and their health. Others have lost loved ones due to the virus. When put that way, what else do we have to give up?
Instead of subtracting something from our lives this Lenten season, why not add to them? What if we were to spend Lent reading books or other materials that will serve to help us love God and others better? What if we were to add prayerful meditation to our days where we sit in silence and listen for God to speak? Or what if we were to learn how to do something that will benefit someone else in the Kingdom of God? Or, how about we pray for a different person each day of Lent, no repeats?
This Lenten season is definitely much different from last year’s. If you’re like my family, you probably felt like it was some crazy sort of hyper-Lent where you were sacrificing something new every day of Lent without intention or prayerful forethought. We will make the best of this, using the space of covid-induced sacrifices to be mindful of new ways to love God and love others.
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Sowing Seeds in Your Crap-Filled Heart
Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.” (Mark 4:1-8, NIV)
My Grandpa was a great gardener. He grew up on the family farm, and when he moved the family down to a small, perfectly grid-laid town in North Carolina, he had a little plot of land where he grew a few fig trees and kept a thriving small garden. Even as a quite old man, he tended his garden from tilling the soil to harvest, and a robust harvest often rewarded his efforts, and we as his family got to enjoy the fruits of his labors, too.
As good of care as he took of his garden, though, the occasional rock would appear. He could leave it where it lay, running the risk that an animal going through the garden might disturb it, pushing it over onto a sprout and possibly killing the plant. So he’d toss it to the edge of the garden where it couldn’t do any harm to his plants.
In this parable of Jesus, he never mentions rocks in our otherwise good soil, but they sometimes crop up (no pun attended). Jesus’ focus is on the soil that receives the seed.
I have a friend named Becca (not her real name). Becca has had some crap heaped up in her heart. Now, I don’t know if you have done much gardening, but composted organic matter, whether kitchen scraps or manure, can make the cheapest, most awful soil rich and nourishing. This crap lay on top of the soil of her heart for a while. If you’ve never smelled freshly laid manure on a field, it’s a noxious, disgusting odor! That happened to Becca; that crap stunk up her heart for a while. Then something happened. The Spirit came in and worked that crap into the soil of her heart. Once the crap gets worked into the soil, it then becomes fertilizer and makes the soil rich and ready for planting.
Suddenly, instead of having a stinky, rank, malnourished heart, Becca had a heart that was fertilized and held good, rich, healthy soil. Then along came the Word. It landed on her heart and seeds began to grow. Becca decided recently to follow Jesus as her Lord and Savior. Those seeds that landed on that great soil that had one time been barren took root and are thriving. It’s early days yet, but I just know that this word is going to produce a massive harvest in her life for the Kingdom of God. It’s already beginning to multiply in her life.
Like my friend, maybe you’re feeling like your heart is worthless to God, stinky from all the crap in your life, and perhaps you’re feeling like you can’t even be present with God right now. That happens to all of us for a season, but it is just for a season. Eventually, after days or weeks or months or years, the Holy Spirit tills up the junk in our hearts, working that crap in to leave them open, fertile, receptive, and ready to grow.
Even with the best nourished heart with a lot of growth, some rocks can show up, and we have to get them out. Rocks can look like distractions, bad relationships, bad habits, or just bad choices. They’re not enough to prevent or stop us from producing spiritual fruit, but they can inhibit some growth if they stay there. So, like my grandpa would toss the rocks out of his garden, we also have to toss these rocks out of our hearts. Now, to do that, we have to acknowledge the rocks exist. We have to see them and hold them in our hands before getting rid of them. We can’t go on ignoring them, hoping they’ll go away on their own. It doesn’t work like that. But once they’re gone, our spiritual gardens are ready once more to produce abundantly.
Don’t give up on your faith journey or what God might be doing in your life because of a layer of crap or a few rocks. The Holy Spirit is bigger and more powerful than anything and everything we are dealing with.
