My friend Paul Richardson found this. I don’t even know what to say about it.
Wow.
So after getting fed up with weeds in my lawn a couple of summers ago, I decided to invest in one of those companies that keeps your lawn fertilized and weed-treated routinely. I did the math and figured the price difference between doing it myself and paying them to do it would be money well spent.
So my little patch of green hasn’t seen a weed since 2006.
My neighbors? Not so much. The folks across from us have beautiful shrubs, flowers, and nicely fluffed pine beds…and about 4000 18-inch tall dandelion flowers. The folks to our left? Well, let’s just say you can tell where our two patches of green meet.
It’s tough to not feel a little proud.
The irony? Um, that would be the fact that Georgia has been plagued by a severe drought since last summer. While I haven’t seen any weeds pop up, I’ve barely seen the first green blade of grass in as much time.
But that has ended, perhaps. At least for now.
Hurricane/tropical storm/depression Fay has smiled on our .5 acres and dumped quite a bit of liquid gold on us the last couple of days. And now, my neatly trimmed sod is actually…dare a say it?…growing! And it’s also turning an odd color. I think they call it “green.”
I’ve waited two years for this. Too bad it’s almost SEPTEMBER and it won’t be long before my patch of green becomes my patch of blonde.
Let me warn you now that I’m the king of cheesy analogies. But it’s how God teaches me, so I make no apologies.
I’ve had a very discouraging couple of weeks. It’s hit from all sides. And one of the more discouraging things happened to day. It had nothing to do with my job, my finances, or the unity of my family. It was just ‘one of those things’ that probably wouldn’t have knocked so much of the wind out of me if I weren’t so prone to a bit of melancholy. But if today’s discouragement were a storm, it would have been one of those long, soaking rains that doesn’t stir up a lot of trouble… It’s just enough to make you want to stay in the house and hope there’s not a leak in the roof you didn’t know about. Just enough to get you a little depressed. (Maybe that’s why they call the leftovers of these storms “depressions.”)
Like our little state down here in the south, I’ve been a bit of a drought the last couple of years. Not the kind that leaves you parched…but the kind that just barely keeps the grass alive. You know…where you don’t HAVE to cut the grass every week unless you just want the exercise.
It’s been tough to follow-through consistently, but I feel like I’ve been hearing God say through all this time, “Stick with me. We’re still moving forward. The rain is coming.” I’ve complained about the heat plenty. And I’ve sure as heck let myself get dehydrated from time to time. But He’s been faithful to me. He always is. I’ve tried to keep praying without ceasing, even when I’m being smacked around. And I’ve tried to keep asking the tough questions and looking to Him for the answers. It’s been kind of like fertilizer during the drought. It’s tough to see what good it’s really done. But now that there’s been some rain the last couple of weeks, I’m thinking I may start to see a little something happen. I’m hoping to find out that the rain has made me grow and that He may be shaking things up a bit.
I don’t want to miss this lesson: To keep our Christianity alive and ready to grow at a moment’s notice, we need to keep ourselves spiritually disciplined. It is TOUGH. But the fruit it bears in season is juicy, ripe, and plentiful. God honors OUR faithfulness to HIM with HIS faithfulness to US. And His faithfulness obviously exceeds the breadth of ours exponentially.
Pray even when He doesn’t tell you He’s listening. Give even when you don’t know where it’s coming from. Encourage others even when you feel like all of your own hope is gone. Seek Truth even when you wonder if there really is any. And believe His word even when the text is blurred by your own tears.
He WILL redeem what has been broken for His sake. He always has, without fail.
…
And then there’s the issue that once the grass starts growing, you’ve got to keep it cut down to size. That’s an entirely different spiritual lesson for another day. I don’t want to think about that right now. ( :
I’m excited about this read. We did a retreat for the men at West Ridge based on this very theme a couple years back, so I’m excited to see someone capture the concept in book form.
I came across the opportunity to read and review Mark Batterson’s book a few weeks ago, and it showed up in the mail today. The book releases officially tomorrow (August 19). Check out Mark’s blog or the Chase the Goose website.
I’ll be giving away a copy this week!
Here’s a little about the book…
Most of us have no idea where we’re going most of the time. Perfect.
“Celtic Christians had a name for the Holy Spirit—An Geadh-Glas, or ‘the Wild Goose.’ The name hints at mystery. Much like a wild goose, the Spirit of God cannot be tracked or tamed. An element of danger, an air of unpredictability surround Him. And while the name may sound a little sacrilegious, I cannot think of a better description of what it’s like to follow the Spirit through life. I think the Celtic Christians were on to something….
Most of us will have no idea where we are going most of the time. And I know that is unsettling. But circumstantial uncertainty also goes by another name: Adventure.” –from the introduction.
About Mark:
Mark Batterson is the lead pastor of Washington, DC’s National Community Church, widely recognized as one ofAmerica’s most innovative churches. NCC meets in movie theaters at metro stops throughout the city, as well as in a church-owned coffee house near Union Station. More than seventy percent of NCC’ers are single twentysomethings who live or work on Capitol Hill. Mark is the author of the best-selling In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and a widely read blogger (www.markbatterson.com). He lives on Capitol Hill with his wife, Lora, and their three children.
When you have worries, fears, sin, or other weight that is heavy on you, what do you magnify? Do you magnify the trouble by letting thoughts of it consume you, or do you magnify Christ and the hope He has for you?
I have a 3-1/2 year old (McKenna) who is absolutely mesmerized by the Olympics. She’d rather watch any Olympic competition than Playhouse Disney right now… That’s saying something. My 1 year old (Caia) can even get a little fixated depending on how much action is on the screen.
Last time the summer games came around, Annette and I hadn’t even bought our first house yet, and we were only expecting McKenna.
But what’s freaking me out today is that the NEXT time the summer games come around,
We’ll have a 3rd grader,
A Kindergartner,
And a child in preschool.
My, how quickly things change.
So Annette and I have been brainstorming names for our new addition due in January. We won’t know whether the tot is blue or pink until September 4, but most of the names we’ve come up with have bent towards the blue column.
Some of the names we have seriously considered but put on the ‘probably not’ list are:
Jeep
Lucy
Quest
Grayson (because it means ’son of gray haired one’)
Graydon (because it means the same thing as Grayson)
Ellianna (we’re not that classy)
Cheech
Stephen Christopher (Annette said “no”. Boo.)
Buick
Regal
Apple
iPhone
Apple iPhone
W
Karen
Kegan
Kirran
Kallan
Or any other name that begins with K. Only because we call McKenna “Kenni,” and our youngest is Caia. So to folks who don’t know that we spell Caia with a “C,” they would thing we named all three of our kids with a K-name, which would not be good here in the South.
Barack
Obama
Osama
Jonathan Edwards
Hillary
Some names we are keeping on the short list as “maybe’s”:
Ronald Reagan
Skip Caray
Bernie Mac
Michael Phelps
Any other names you think we should put on the “no” list?
UPDATE: Grayson can go back on the list… Found out it can also mean “Son of the steward.” I can dig that.
After 3-1/2 years, we finally took Kenni to get her hair cut. We are sending the remnant to Locks of Love. She’s commemorating the occasion with a strawberries ‘n cream frap from Starbucks.
Coming soon!
Just saw this on my Facebook homepage… Ooooooo, now I’m getting excited.
They may not be on the cover of SI, and they may not be all the hype. But they’re mine, dangit. And I love ‘em just the way they are.
Here’s some interesting Stephen trivia… I’ve been a Ga Tech Alum for almost 15 years, and I STILL have not been to a Tech/UGA game. So far, it’s my one regret in life. And I think I’ve already missed the boat for getting tickets this year. Sadness.
I really don’t even have a clue how to preface this, so I won’t try.
PORT ANGELES, Wash. - An athletic shoe containing a human foot was found on a Washington state beach, and authorities are investigating whether it may be linked to a series of human feet found in shoes along the coast of British Columbia.
