Waxing Eloquent

“…this faith…It’s our handle on what we can’t see.” Hebrews 11:1-2 (MSG)

I’ve felt lousy off and on for the biggest part of three months and even though I am on the mend I just am not that inspired nor do I feel inspiring. I’ve had writer’s block for about six weeks now. I have several ideas and I even tried to write a paragraph or two but my writing just seemed lumpy and bland. I want so much to write and blog words that matter.

This morning as I was sitting on my front porch, eyes closed, face to the sun-breaking sky, on this the first day of tolerable above freezing temperatures in a long time I thought of a situation my husband and I have been praying into. Our hope is the outcome would be one which breathes life, health and functionality to all involved. Things are being shaken in this situation but I have to admit as an outsider looking in things appear not to be leveling off and being rebuilt. It almost seems as if a sinkhole has opened up and is about to swallow all involved.

Huh; hmmm and all of those other pondering words. This is not what I had in mind when I was praying. In fact the opposite of what I would do if I were in charge of the universe is happening. But as I was swinging in the sunshine on my front porch the following are the word pictures and thoughts that were impressed on my mind.

If you take a sickle and swipe it at a plant you’ve still left the roots to take hold, go deeper, and shoot another sprout above ground. However, if you get down closer to the dirt, get your hands dirty, dig around, pull, tug, dig a little deeper you don’t just cut the thing you can see you get to the literal root of the problem.

Sure there is by far more effort exerted to get a deep rooted long existing plant up out of the ground than what it takes to swipe a sickle at the above ground foliage. The digging may even leave us exhausted. The process will most likely cause a blister or may even leave us a little calloused and bruised but in the end if we persevere the problem will be gone.

So today for the first time in a long time I can see by faith past what is to what will be. For the first time in a long time I feel where we are in this situation is not the destination but part of the pot holed path we must traverse.

I so want to bring encouragement to everyone who stumbles upon and reads my writings yet lately what I have been feeling just doesn’t fit into the encouragement category. I decided today encouragement doesn’t only come through distant mountain tops of rainbow sprinkles and sunshine. Sometimes encouragement comes from standing knee deep in the mucky ditch of life declaring this is not my destination!