Dry Ground and Lilacs

With yesterday being a holiday I decided to take a long walk. The Weather Channel promised thunderstorms in the afternoon (which never materialized) so I set off in the morning. The old railway tracks along the southern side of the city have been torn up to make a walking path. My goal was to follow the tracks. As I was walking it occurred to me that it had been many years since I had visited the cemetery where my parents are buried. Since I was in the southern end of the city I took a right at the end of the walking path and headed in that direction.

It's early in the season, which might explain my dismay when I got to the cemetery, found my parents' headstone and saw the condition of the grounds. Pretty sad. I know there are all kinds of prohibitions against chemicals for garden use, but a little "Weed & Feed" would have been a great idea in the cemetery.

I think my life needs a little "Weed & Feed" too. As I read the Scriptures this morning from Psalms 133-135, I was struck by the continual injunction to "praise the Lord." I don't feel like it and for that I am ashamed because I have no reason not to praise the Lord. I am blessed far beyond anything I can imagine. At the same time I feel flat, uninspired, discouraged and frustrated.

"Weed and Feed." It's time to take a close look at the reasons for the above. I think I can identify the "dandelions" and find the parched soil. The process begins with what I didn't feel like doing this morning, praising God—whether I "feel" like it or not.

"Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good, sing praise to his name, for that is pleasant…I know that the Lord is great, that our Lord is greater than all gods. The Lord does what pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths. He makes the clouds rise from the ends of the earth; he sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses…Your name, O Lord, endures forever, your renown, O Lord, through all generations. For the Lord will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants" —Psalm 135:3, 5-7, 13, 14 NIV.

A cool breeze floats through the window as I write, bringing with it the scent of honeysuckle and lilacs. I remember the path I traveled before I got to the cemetery. Amongst the weeds and the dry ground, there is beauty and joy and reason to praise the Lord.

Comments

  1. Anonymous25 May 2010 at 09:43

    Me gusta lo que escribiste. Siempre hay una razón para Alabar al Señor.El Señor hace todo lo que quiere en los cielos y en la tierra, en los mares y en todos sus abismos. El Señor es bueno,
    Marisol Zamorano

    ReplyDelete
  2. Laury25 May 2010 at 11:24

    Good word today. I need to be more intentional about praising the Lord, too. Good reminder.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Staying Put and Moving On

Genesis 23-26 Among the many interesting aspects of these chapters is an incident that jumps out at me. This year I’m looking at my Scripture readings in the light of changes, adjustments, course corrections that have to be made, and what the Scriptures say about them. Abraham had died. Isaac was living in Gerar under the watchful eye of Abimelech. God blessed Isaac to the point that there simply wasn't room for him and all that he had gained to lived peaceable among the Philistines. There were issues of envy which resulted in some nasty events: “ So all the wells that his father’s servant had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth ” —Genesis 26:15. Abimelech asked Isaac to move a little farther away to prevent any more conflict. Isaac did what he was asked and moved, reopening the wells that the Philistines had stopped up when his father was alive—presumably the result of a different generation of envious neighbours at Abraham’s
Read more

The Case of the Pilfering Peacock

Image
Such little things under ordinary circumstances: a few pots of lettuce and a little spinach. But in a country like Pakistan, and in the heart of the Sindh, anything resembling salad is as hard to find as hen’s teeth; well, in this case, peacock’s teeth. My friend, Hannah, is a retired missionary nurse. Actually she became a retreaded missionary nurse, having returned to Pakistan several times several times after retirement to fill a desperate need for nursing staff at the hospital she first went to serve in back in the 1960s.   A wall surrounds the hospital. On the grounds are the homes of the medical staff and some of the Pakistani people who work at the facility. It also seems to be the favourite place for the peacocks from the local Temple to hang out.    It had to be the lettuce and the spinach that attracted them. When she first noticed the peacocks, Hannah admired their beauty—until she noticed that they were lunching on the spinach. She tried to shoo them away. “Persistent” seem
Read more

Worry Walks Alone

Somewhere along the way I picked up a little card that still hangs on the bulletin board above my desk. It says: "Worry slanders every promise in the Word of God." Naturally it came to mind this morning as I read my verse for the day. "Then Jesus said to his disciples: 'Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes" —Luke 12:22, 23. (And these verses come attached to yesterday's verse on being careful about greed.) Another image comes to mind. As I watched the news yesterday, several people cheated of their life savings by Bernie Madoff, were being interviewed. One woman in particular stood out. She said that, thanks to Madoff, she no longer has the means to feed herself or to buy medicine. Basically she is now destitute. Is she worried? Who wouldn't be? Matthew includes the teaching of these verses in the famous Sermon on the Mount, j
Read more