17b And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
Our grass is in desperate need of some help. We have not had much rain, the lawn mower was set too low and scalped it, and our soil lacks nutrients. So the combination of the three has spelled “brown.” And when you are trying to sell a house in the South, the green lawn is one of the keys. That is because no one expects a green lawn, so when it is there it says, “Something is different about this house.” So early yesterday morning I was out applying some liquid magic to the lawn. Water and fertilizer before the blazing sun rises and fries the grass. We do have grass for which we are grateful. It has looked better in the past than it does right now, but now is when we need it to look good. I have been tempted to simply spray paint the whole lawn green! Green food coloring would work, since we are not getting much rain. There I go scheming again! There are no quick fixes for my lawn. It is going to take time, something my impatience is trying to rush. Isn’t that what we need in our spiritual life? We need to get our roots down deep, crowd out the weeds, and then we can grow. We can’t live on the surface of a relationship with Jesus. He will always be trying to draw us in deeper. One of the parables tells of the seed sown on the rocks, no roots, so death follows. If we are going to be living past death we must have roots able to draw on the eternal waters of life. But we can’t survive without some fellow plants. If we are all alone, the sun beats down on the soil around us and we dry up. We need the shade and support of other believers. Our togetherness serves a purpose. That is the part about being established in love. We need to find our place of support and ministry. We need to experience the love of God and be a vessel for sharing that love with others. I think of trees planted together in a grouping. When the winds come they help shield and support each other. The lone tree tumbles. I don’t know about you, but when the winds have come in my life, I needed others to support me. Who do you have in your life that provide you the support you need? Who do you support? If you can’t answer those questions quickly with some names, you are probably in danger of drying out spiritually.
The Arnold Journey 