Walk with God – Page 2 – Roberta Writes

We learn from our mistakes

My kids all like to cook. When they were younger it was a highly supervised endevour. Now as they get older it requires that I am close at hand but NOT interfering. I listen and interject when I hear statements like, “it calls for a 1/4 cup of salt.” No. Never, in any recipe, except perhaps a brine do you eve use that much salt. Or my son will ask, “What colour is this?” when cooking ground beef (he’s colour-blind).

I told my husband the other day that most times it is still easier and faster to do things myself. But, then they wouldn’t learn. He laughed and said, “Yeah, like me I had to learn how to cook after I left home.” I explained to him that what he did was keep himself alive, it couldn’t be described as cooking. I’m not a very nice wife!

When faced with my daily struggles there are many times that I wish God would just reach down and do it for me. It would be easier for both of us. But then what would I learn?

Psalm 139: 23-24 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Draw on His strength

I love words. I like to discover the meaning or root of the word. This is something that has always interested me. Not spelling, I’m a dreadful speller, but words I love.

Lately I have described my feelings as discouraged. Meaning that I have been feeling defeated or down. I listened to a presenter discuss this word ‘discouraged.’ And I realized, for the first time (shocked at myself for not realizing this earlier) that discouraged is actually to lack courage. Wow! Mind blown. This isn’t how we use this word in our world.

I am not discouraged. I may be down, I may be out but I’m still fighting. Being frustrated and depressed is not the same as lacking courage.

Maybe you are facing troubles too. Maybe you are feeling isolated and alone. The good news is, our courage and our strength doesn’t come from within us. We don’t have to be discouraged as we can draw on the power of the Almighty! We can be like David when he faced Goliath. He wasn’t sure because of his own strength, he was sure because God was with him.

Psalm 42: 11 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

In the garden

Gardening brings me closer to God. There are several reasons that I say this. First, it brings us in direct connection with God’s creation. Second it is contemplative. You have time to think and just rest your mind as you do mundane tasks like weeding. Third, Jesus often used farming and gardening analogies in his parables and teachings.

This is time of year that I find stressful as a gardener. The seeds are planted. I can water and wait. The seeds I planted eventually start to poke their heads above the surface. But in the time they took to do that the weeds have also returned. I watch helplessly as the weeds pop up. I can’t wade into the garden and pick the weeds as I might step on a bud about to pop just below the surface. Or I might root up a tender shoot as I pull out a weed.

This is a time for patience. It isn’t my job to weed right now. I must wait until the plants are more established and ready to harvest. Then I can weed again.

God can’t remove all the weeds from my life, I must live with them and persist in growing and bearing the fruit I was planted to create.

Matthew 13: 29 “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds,
you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest.
At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles
to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

Galvanize your heart

I have a little galvanized steel pitcher. It doesn’t look like other steel. It isn’t shiny or brushed looking. It has little shapes, jagged and erratic and dull. This finish is called “spangle.”

They make galvanized steel through a process of coating the steel in zinc. There are several types methods used. They dip the metal in hot zinc or subject it to electric charges. Regardless of the technique used the dirt, grease and rust must first be removed. The steel must be completely clean. The zinc adheres to the metal and creates the spangle pattern.

What does this zinc coating do for the metal? It protects it from corrosion. It makes it resist rust and the natural degradation to which it would be susceptible.

This is how troubles and struggles work in our own lives. First the dirt and grime of life have to be cleaned off. Then we need to go through a fortifying process, and then we are resistant to corruption and degradation.

How do we do this? Keeping our eyes on God. Reading his word. Doing as he would want us to do.

2 Peter 1: 3-4 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that
through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped
the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

The sounds of my life

In the cool of the evening, I escape the house. The hot, stuffy house. I water the freshly planted seeds. The garden soil is dark, a few stray weeds poking up.

The cool evening breeze delights my soul. It refreshes me. Water from the hose leaks down my hand. I’ll have to get my husband to fix it. A lawn mower hums in the distance.

The birds are chirping and singing, their evening bustle hectic and loud. I hear the traffic in the background. For years I have resented this ever present noise. I’ve imagined it away. But tonight I realize it’s part of the backdrop of my life. This is where I’ve been planted.

Rather than longing to be situated where I think I’d be happy, I should be thankful that I am where God saw fit to put me. My friendly neighbourhood with familiar and beloved faces around me.

I return to the heat of my little old bungalow reluctantly. Inside is the bustle and noise of children getting ready for bed. They are not as noisy as the birds.

I can hear my son in the other room humming Amazing Grace. It feels somehow appropriate to my mood of resignation and acceptance. Amazing Grace indeed!!

Refresh

A long time ago, when I was a young adult, I visited my family in Africa. The day after I arrived we loaded in my cousin’s car and drove to Botswana. It was nearing the end of their dry season. Botswana is mostly Kalahari Desert. Dry and brown with some faded green shrubs. The long yellow grasses growing from the dark red soil.

We drove over a high and long bridge. Where I live a bridge like that would be crossing a substantial river, and that was what I expected to see. As we drove over the bridge, I looked down to see river bed. The sandy river bed, cracked and dry. No water in sight.

I asked my Cousin why the bridge was so high if no water was running under it. He informed me that there isn’t any water now, but when the rain comes it can come all at once. In southern Botswana they only get a little over a foot of rain in a year during their wet season. But some years it comes in a shorter period. The bridge is built for those years, to withstand the force of the overflowing rivers.

The image of the dry desert being flooded by life giving water is a powerful recollection. Although the rain can be destructive in its force, it will leave the land refreshed and renewed in its wake.

Seasons of renewal come. Usually after long periods of drought and turmoil, but they do come.

Job 38: 25-27 Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, to water a land where no one lives, an uninhabited desert,
to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass?

Mother’s day

We need ideals. We need something to aim at. Of course having down-to-earth and encouraging relationships is important too, but we need something to look at, something to follow. Like a star guiding a sailor home to port. A guiding light in the dark.

Happy Mother’s Day to my own mother and to all the women who have guided me through the darkness of life. You are more precious than rubies to me.

Proverbs 31: 10-31
A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.
Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.
She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.
She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands.
She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar.
She gets up while it is still night; she provides food for her family and portions for her female servants.
She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks.
She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night.
In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.
When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet.
She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.
She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes.
She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.
She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.”
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Who sustains us?

I saw a meme today. That’s a weird thing to say, isn’t it? In the world before the seismic shift that is our new technological age, I would have never said, “I saw a meme.” If I did say it, you wouldn’t know what I was talking about. But here we are, we find ourselves in a new world. This meme simply said, “Fear says ‘What if,’ Faith says ‘Even if.'”

I love when a complex idea can be encapsulated in a single sentence. This sentence does indeed do this. Bad things will happen to everyone. We can’t judge our place with God by how trouble free our life is. Rather, we need to look for Him in those times of trial and be confident in the relationship we develop during difficulties. The strength we build from our faith helps us with the ups and downs in life.

This is one of my favourite old hymns. I used to sing it in the car to the kids when they were little.

Psalm 121 I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

The secret garden

There is a secret garden. A small space forgotten by time and the race of humanity.

The narrowest of paths leads to its unknown location. This path is rugged. This path is lined with thorns and branches. But if we persevere it leads to the narrowest of gates. A rusty, creaky hard to open gate. Behind this narrow gate, enclosed in tall walls is the most unexpected place. A garden.

It’s not the showy beauty of a cultivated garden. There is nothing civilized about it. It is wild and untamed. It is frightening in its chaotic order. It seems untouched by human hands. Nothing there seems planned and yet it was planted by someone or it wouldn’t be within the walls.

The array of flowers is surprising and unlike anything we could imagine. Our imagination being confined to what we already know, what we can see in our own minds eye. This garden is not the product of human ingenuity and labour. It is created by a mind far greater in scope.

No detail is missed. Every provision for every songbird is here. Every tree for afternoon shade grows by plan. The garden seems limitless once you pass through the gate and dwell inside the grey walls that surround it.

But above all else there is a peace. A quiet rest in the safety of the great walls. Visitors are now wrapped up in the same secret hiddenness of the garden itself. The burdens of the world lifted from our troubled hearts.

This is what our lives are like when we trust God. We walk the narrow, dark and dangerous path that he bids us take. Our future with Him is beyond what we can comprehend. And the peace of His love will wrap our burdened souls.

Matthew 7: 13 – 14 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and
broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”