If my rose bushes could talk

I am giggling on the inside about the title of this blog.  Of course, rose bushes can't talk.  But if they could, I wonder what they would have said the other day when I was pruning my two Knockout rose bushes.  You may remember the day beauty came back into my life in the midst of a mess.  

I was trimming some dead buds off of the tips of the rose bush branches.  I was hoping that I didn't leave it empty of red roses once I was done.  I kept pruning and cutting.   When I stepped back to take in the view of the two bushes, I noticed something.  

The rose bushes were ablaze of red color.  

There were so many new buds and blooming roses dotting the green lush branches, it was as if 100 roses had instantly appeared.  I didn't even know where I had cut any of the dead tips off.  My kitchen shears had not made a dent in their beauty.  There were so many roses waving at me for my attention.

The dead buds that I had cut had fallen to the base of the bush and disappeared.  The blooming and budding roses that still remained on the bush seemed to have multiplied.  Sitting pretty atop their branches...they were shouting at me, as if to say thanks for the taking time to cut off the dead and the ugly.  

“We feel so much better now; it's as if you just gave us some deep sips of Miracle grow."   

Oh… if my roses could talk what would they say? 

The growth that I noticed from the pruning was remarkable. It was noticeable.  It was all I could look at.  And it was really there the whole time.    

And then God said..."That's what I am doing in you.  I am pruning you."  

God used my pruning time as His pruning time.

John 15:1-2:  "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  

He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful."

There is richness that comes from God's pruning.  Sometimes God has to cut us to the root so new things can grow.  When these verses are applied to my life I can see that God has his kitchen shears handy.  Pruning is a necessary process for faith growth.  If the dead tips or branches aren't taken off, the bush will get overgrown and unfruitful.  Without pruning there would not be new growth or new buds of beauty.

When pruning happens in your life, let me encourage you to look to what you would be gaining instead of losing.  If your Gardener appears to be cutting things away, he knows the buds of life that are about to pop out.    He knows and sees the greater abundance of fruit that you could bear.

You might shout that it's painful.  All pruning can be or is a little painful, or maybe in your garden, a lot of pain is involved.  But let me give you a little rosy hope here....the removal of those dead places is worth the new life that will bud in your heart.  There are many blessings we never experience until we are ready to let God do some removing or disciplining.  The path of suffering or pain is the only way to reach the beauty that He has planned for each one of us.

Proverbs 3:11-12 "My son, do not despise and do not resent his rebuke because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the song he delights in."

Cutting the dead away will allow the new to shout into your soul.  But you have to allow the Gardener to do his holy work on your overgrown and unkempt heart.  

Do you question the number of trials in your life? Do you look at God's discipline as a negative instead of a positive?   There are always good lessons of correction to learn in God’s garden.  The Gardener stops pruning, trimming, shaping and weeding the branches or soil only when He expects nothing more from the vine during that season.  

God wants us to bear his name; his fruit is the profit from his pruning actions.  

The Gardner of the Vine wants us to be shaped by His truth.   There are some godly fruit that still needs to be produced.  The harvest is beautifully bountiful if we let God knockout our lifeless vines and allow the Gardner’s holy handy work.   

What needs pruning in your life?

Five Minute Friday {Faith}

Faith.  

Faith is such a great and curious conundrum that we face.

Faith is active, and requires action.  

It's built on our trust in God.  

Faith is the unknown, the unseen.  

Often we can't see the other side of faith until we get there.  

Many times the path of faith is not clear, it's cluttered and marked with disaster.  

There are days when my faith looks faint.

Seeing is not faith....it's reasoning.  

Genuine faith looks to God.

It's impossible to please God without faith.

Faith requires us to wait on God.  

Faith is our response to a loving God.   

Faith stands still as God wins battles.

Those who have faith are blessed.

Faith fixes our vision.  Jesus writes the word faith in red on our hearts.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  ~ Hebrews 12:2

The Days I Learned Compassion

Mine looked just like these.....wow!

I was so excited that day...I looked down and there they were, my bright new Red Ball canvas tennis shoes.  I got them for free in the mail.  My grandmother had sent off for them, she was a pioneer in the coupon and mail-in-rebate game.  She would always send of for this or that.  I would sit and watch her for hours on end, clipping and snipping, addressing rebate envelopes.  She had it down to a science.   And when I got something in the mail, it was a special surprise.


On that Sunday morning I wanted everyone to see my special Red-Ball-tennis-shoe surprise.  We pulled up to the familiar house and immediately Francis bounded out, like a race horse out of the gate.  She had been waiting for us.  She jumped into the backseat beside me, bringing with her the aroma of something fried, and wearing a rumpled dress.  I never really understood her enthusiam to go to church and Sunday School with us.  To me....it was the same verse every Sunday.  But that Sunday, you can guess what I showed her first.  Yup...my Red Ball canvas tennis shoes.  


She wasn't nearly as excited as I was about the shoes.  She looked back at her two room house with the roof that always needed a repair.  I saw a glimpse of sadness in her eyes.  I just kept looking at my new red shoes.  They were that spiffy, so bright, so new, so incredible.  I felt so pretty.  It never occurred to me at the young age of eight to give them away.  


My attention was suddenly torn from my new shoes to Francis' quiet manner.  I began to wonder what it was like to have a sick mom all the time.  I wondered what it was like to not have a hot meal on your table three times a day.  I had never been without but I knew Francis had.  My parents had taken her family groceries many times.  I wondered those weird-for-my-age thoughts as I kept looking down at my new red shoes.  I'm sure her dad did the best he could to take care of her.  I assumed they had help from others.  


One day we got news that her mom passed away.  I thought about Francis and wondered how lonely and alone she must have felt.  My sympathy deepened for her as I thought about my own attachment to my mom.  We took some food to her house, my parents stayed there for a long time.  It was all very hard for young heart to understand back then.  


Fast forward to adulthood and I can now see that those Francis days were really days that God sowed the seeds of compassion in my heart.  Seeds that have now grown into full-sized gifts to give the orphaned, the needy, the disadvantaged, the fatherless.  


I don't really know if it was that day of the Red Ball tennis shoes or just the faithful obedience of my parents that unlocked this passion deep in my soul.  My heart is pierced often on a daily basis when mine and the hearts of those who are less fortunate collide.  


Why am I telling you this?  I really just wanted to provoke some thought about God's gifts that maybe lying dormant in your soul.  Acknowledging your God given gifts is really an act of recovery instead of discovery.  I believe God gives them early on so they can be developed along the way.  I think about the many missed opportunities I had with Francis....to speak into her life and let her know that she is loved and that she matters.  That's why when asked to travel half-way around the world to hug on little African hearts, I am the first to jump on board the triple 7.  Secretly though....it's my heart that takes a leap of joy. The same feeling overwhelms me when I connect sponsors with children of Mission of Mercy, tears stream, and I am overcome with joy because my heart is caught in the throws of compassion.


Those red shoes are long gone, but they have left their footprint on my soul.  I treasure the feeling the shoes left.  I treasure God's gift of compassion.  I treasure the less fortunate who need to know that they are God's beautiful.  Even if I don't have have a pair of brand new Red Ball tennis shoes to give them.  

Lyrics of the Week

I am really digging the new music from Red. You can get more information about the band here.

Never Be The Same

I know you, who are you now?
look into my eyes if you can't remember
do you remember? oh!

I can say, i can still find
your are the only voice my heart can recognize
but I can hear you now, yeah!

[Chorus]
I'll never be the same
I'm caught inside the memories
the promises, our yesterdays
and I belong to you
I just can't walk away
cause after loving you
I can never be the same

and how can I pretend I never knew you
like it was all a dream, no!

I know I'll never forget
the way i always felt with you beside me
and how you loved me then, yeah!

[chorus]

you left me here
then I watched you disappear
you left this emptiness inside
and I cant turn back time

no, stay!
nothing compares to you
nothing compares to you
I cant let you go
can't let you go
I can't let go!

I'll never be the same
not after loving you, not after loving you
no!

[chorus]

I can never be the same
I will never be the same

oh, oh, oh
oh, oh

I just can't walk away
no I cant walk away..
from you

Every encounter with Jesus should leave us a changed person. We can never be the same if we truly love him and give him our affection. An encounter like that will result in change.

What song is impacting you this week?