who else will?

Wondering what you are looking at?  That's the game I play every time I look in my garden.   This is a corn stalk.   I planted 4 rows with 10 each.  I got one lone corn stalk.  I waited for the others to come poking up.  No joy.  Here is a little corn stalk trivia: One corn stalk is quite unsuccessful at pollinating itself & growing a full ear of corn.  It is basically a nutrient zapper with the potential to grow only few kernels on its own.

So why keep it in my garden?  Cause I'm relentlessly stubborn when it comes to looking out for the loner.   I'm developing an ridiculously strong emotional attachment to it. Why should this corn stalk get thrown to compost just because the others didn't bother to show up?  It's here doing a stand up job.

Look at it!  You go corn stalk!   You grow!

For the garden nerds out there I planted pumpkins & pole green beans to fill in the empty space.  Also in this pic you can also detect some serious grass growing (the lawn variety, not recreational to be clear).  I claim to be a gardener, but I don't claim to be a good one.

There is a way with my help that it this loner will develop full healthy ears of corn.  It is called hand pollination.  I'd explain the process but if you google it you'll understand it better.  I also might blush if I talk about the girl & boy parts of a corn stalk - and that one of them is called tassels.   Really I'll spare all of us. In short, the stalk has everything it needs do to what is required.  It isn't like it is defective, or incomplete.  It just needs intervention at key moments for it to thrive.

So profound thought today?  No.  Not really.

Just a super loud shout out to anyone who has weathered some tough storms on their own.  So to you single parent, foster child, abandoned spouse, neglected spouse, ignored kid, props to you.   You, the advocate for the underdog even though you'll get burned, the de-friended, the outcast, the fallen down but getting back up, the anxious/depressed, the weaker than ever yet still sober.  You go!  And finally you 'the virtuous' who thinks standing upright never mattered, that's right I'm blogging about YOU,  you especially...

...I see you treading over the wreckage that most would have died underneath.  You see, THAT MATTERS!

A lot of us occasionally find ourselves on that road where nobody friendly is traveling.  Perhaps for a few of us it is an all too familiar journey.  There is One walking with us.  One, who although unseen, intervenes at key moments & give us exactly what we need.

So, to you, today:  I'm sorry so you're lonely.   I hurt with you.

Mostly, I hope you know you're not incomplete or defective.  Consider this you're friendly reminder that you have everything it takes to stand...

Learn to do good

Seek justice

Help the oppressed

Defend the cause of orphans

Fight for the rights of widows

Isaiah 1:17

...especially when no one else does.


And in cheesy radio station style, I dedicate this song from Shane Harper to you.

If you can't pull it up on your browser click HERE

the TRUTH, the whole TRUTH & nothing but the TRUTH

 Thorns hurt.  That is the truth.

Prickles penetrate the skin with a clear message - handle with care, don't get too close, I'm not afraid to hurt you.  Thorns choke out good seedlings (Matt 13:7), they torment us to cry for God's grace (2 Cor. 12:7-8). Thorns are part of the curse when we fell into sin (Gen 3:17).

I've had to contend with thorns. 

Several years ago I planted a rose bush in my back yard with hopes of beauty. All I got was thorns.  Proper fertilization & pruning resulted in… more thorns. Eventually I gave up the idea of pretty rose blooms & became complacent with the thorny bush hanging out in my yard.

Fast forward to Spring 2011. It was time to make different plans for that space. I was tired of mowing around a prickly thorn bush and I wanted to grow something meaningful. Shovel in hand I dug it out. I prepared the soil for a vegetable garden - something fruitful for a change.  Relief.

Until those thorns came back.

Spring 2012 I dug deeper & cleared all the roots I could find. Spring 2013 I spent days preparing the garden bed & planted several strawberry plants when my nemesis, thorn bush, poked its head up and killed a few of the strawberry plants. I felt utterly defeated.

So here is the whole truth:

Perhaps this wouldn't be so bad if I were just speaking of my garden. Really, this story mirrors some thorns in my soul I've been battling since that bush was planted.   Thorns of bitterness, hurt, wishing to be loved & desired, relationships that took a bad turn, longing to escape, negativity, depression, etc.  There is honest embarrassment when I own up to the number of years I’ve battled my own self & how much the thorns had taken over.   I had taken great effort to remove these in my life - without success. Things that had been prayed & fasted over - and yet remained. These thorns were destroying MY best laid plans for serving my loving Father. These thorns were affecting other people too.

Thorns hurt. They hurt me & they hurt others. 

Early summer 2013 I noticed something.  Something I hadn’t seen before on my relentless thorn bush. It was a bud. Not just one bud, but 40+ buds.  God had different plans than I did.

Nothing but the Truth. Those blooms changed everything.

I had long forgotten that this wasn't a thorn bush. This was a ROSE bush. It was designed to produce beautiful, fragrant roses - visible from afar.  Sure the thorns are still there, but they are worth it when I remember that its identity is a rose bush. I can't explain the mystery of why this mule rose bush remained dormant until last year. Perhaps it was so God could clearly speak to me last summer about the whole truth of myself & others.

I'm not a problem. I'm a person.

Even among my thorns, God creates blooms.  (2 Cor. 2:14-15)

People are not problems. People are people.

It is easy to be quick to dig out the problem people in our lives - but we forfeit the refining & forfeit the beauty that God can bring forth.  We forfeit the blooms.  The fragrant offering is living the pattern of Godly relationships.   (Eph. 5:2)

Fundamentally I'm created to be loved. When I'm not loved for who I'm created to be, it will always hurt. It will always attack my identity because I'm created to be loved. Likewise, I can never underestimate my role in reminding someone else of their true created identity. When I see someone as a prickly thorn bush, or oppositely distort love into lust, I become the speaker of lies in their life.  I become the thorns that torment & choke out little seedlings. 

So this year, 2014, I still struggle with seeing the potential for beauty among the thorns of life. But God is speaking to me through that rose bush.  This year there were hundreds of blooms.

It’s like sometimes, God just wants to brag.

I AM the one who answers your prayers and cares for you.

I AM the tree that is always green;

all of your fruit comes from ME.

Hosea 14:8