I had sat there for hours like I always do, occasionally undergoing a test or other procedure, waiting for the doctor to finally reach my chart, along with a dozen or more other patients who also sit for hours every time we go to the Eye Clinic.  But this time was different.

An older woman and her husband sat next to me.  As often happens, we began to talk, usually about how long we have been waiting, the longest we have ever had to wait, and the various distances we all travel to see this world renowned, and incredibly skillful doctor we share.  Then she said four words, “I have a shunt,” and everything changed.

My head whirled around, riveted to her face and especially her eyes.  “You do?”

“Yes, two actually.”

“I have one, too,” I said, excitement creeping into my voice.

Her eyes instantly lit up.  “You do?” and there followed an hour of, “Do you have trouble with depth perception?  Do you see circles?  Does it ache?”  One question followed another, both of us nodding to one another and saying, “Yes, yes. Me too!”

Finally someone understands, finally someone knows how I feel (both of us were thinking). 

Someone understands how odd your vision can be; how colors have changed, how light “gets in the way;” how you can’t tell when a curb is a step up or step down or any step at all; how riding in the passenger seat makes vehicles in front of you look much closer; how many strange things can go wrong with an eyeball after what seems to the world like an easy surgery—why, you didn’t even have to stay in the hospital so how could it be serious? Someone else understands how much pain eye drops can cause, and how all those beta blockers can wreak havoc with your stamina; how careful you have to be when doing something as simple as wiping your eye because of all the hardware inside and on top of it; how inappropriate the remark, “I hope you get better soon,” is because there is no hope for better, just a hope that it will not get worse too soon; and someone else knows the feeling that any day could be the day that it all blows up.

We sat there talking like close personal friends.  Occasionally she looked over at her husband and said, “You see?  I’m not crazy after all,” and he nodded, a bit patronizingly I thought, but we had developed such a quick and strong bond that perhaps I was just feeling protective.

We were both called to separate exam rooms but when I left, I waved across the hall and wished her well.  I never got her name, nor she mine.  Strange, I guess, but we never felt the need to ask personal questions—we felt like we had known one another for years, and all because we felt the kinship of understanding what each of us was experiencing when no one else did.

No matter what you are going through today, you have a friend just like that.  God emptied Himself to become a man and experience what you experience, feel what you feel, and suffer what you suffer.  He did that precisely so He could understand.  I always knew that, but now I really know how quickly a bond can form simply because of that shared experience. 

But what if I had never responded to the woman’s simple statement about a shunt?  What if I had just sat there and done nothing?  That bond would never have formed.  It takes a response to the offer to gain the reward.  It takes a willingness to open up and share with the Lord the things you are feeling.  Yes, He already knows, but you will never feel the closeness of that bond until you share with Him as well.

That day it felt like I had found, not a new friend, but a long, lost friend from the past.  When it happens that fast, it can’t be a complete stranger, can it?  Why don’t you turn around and talk to the Man next to you today and find out for yourself?

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery…Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted, Heb 2:14-18.

Dene Ward

When I was young, radio evangelists were fond of ending their broadcasts with the directive to “put your hand on the radio and just believe.”  That was supposed to instantly transform the person who did nothing but sit in his recliner with a cup of coffee (or a can of beer?) into a Christian, a true believer, a person of “faith.” 

Most mainstream denominational theologians believe in this doctrine of “mental assent.”  Faith is nothing more than believing, no action required.  Surely that must be one of those things spawned by the itching ears of listeners who wanted nothing required of them.  Just look at a few scriptures with me.

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. Galatians 5:6.  What was that?  “Faith working…?”  Faith isn’t supposed to “work,” or so everyone says.  Did you know that Greek word is energeo?  Can you see it?  That’s the word we get “energy” and “energetic” from.  I don’t remember seeing too many energetic people sitting in their recliners.

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, Philippians 1:27.  Striving for the faith?  Even in English “striving” implies effort.  In fact, the Greek word is sunathleo.  Ask any “athlete” if mental assent will help him win a gold medal or a Super Bowl ring and you’ll hear him laughing a mile away.

Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all, Philippians 2:17, ESV.  Now that can’t be right.  Everyone knows faith has nothing to do with outward observances of the law like sacrifices.  Well, how about this translation?  The ASV says “service of faith.”  Anyway you look at it, whether sacrifice or service, it requires some sort of action on our parts.

Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses,1 Timothy 6:12.  Faith is a “fight.”  That Greek word is agon from which we get our word “agony.”  If you are a crossword puzzler, you know that an agon was a public fight in the Roman arena.  Anyone who did nothing but sit there, with or without a recliner, didn’t last long.

To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12.  And there you have it in black and white:  “work of faith.” 

Nope, some say, the trouble is you keep quoting these men.  Jesus never said any such thing.  Jesus answered them, This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent, John 6:29.  If faith itself is a work, how can we divorce the works it does from it? 

We do have examples of mental assent in the scriptures, three that I could find easily. 

You believe that God is one; you do well: the demons also believe, and shudder. James 2:19

But certain also of the strolling Jews, exorcists, took upon them to name over them that had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, a chief priest, who did this. And the evil spirit answered and said unto them, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you? Acts 19:13-15

Those first two examples are powerful.  The devil and his minions believe in the existence of God and the deity of Jesus.  In fact, they know those things for a fact.  They even, please notice, recognize Paul as one of the Lord’s ministers.  So much for not paying attention to his or any other apostle’s writings.  Then there is this one:

Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; John 12:42.  Those men believed too.  They would have been thrilled to know they could put their hands on something in the privacy of their homes and “just believe.”  They could have had their cake and eaten it too—become followers without actually following.

And therein lies the crux of the matter.  It’s easy to sit in your recliner and listen.  It’s too hard to work, to strive, to sacrifice and serve, and way too hard to fight until you experience the agony of rejection, tribulation, and persecution.

Guess what?  Some of us believe this too.  We just substitute the pew for the recliner.  It doesn’t work that way either.  God wants us up and on our feet, working, serving, sacrificing and fighting till the end, whenever and however that may happen.

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you fail to meet the test! 2 Corinthians 13:5

Dene Ward

I grew up in Central Florida, so I am familiar with houseflies.  We even had them in the winter.  After every annual Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner at my grandmother’s house, she pulled all the food to one end of the table, then carefully draped the other end of the tablecloth back over the bowls and platters for anyone who wanted to snack all day.  That way the flies couldn’t use the food as landing pads.

When Keith and I moved to the country, flies became an ordeal.  Even with air conditioning, they manage to zoom in between door openings and closings, especially when, as was the case for several years, not twenty feet outside your back door lies a well-populated cow pasture. 

What I was not ready for were yellow flies.  I had never dealt with a fly that bites.  The first time one landed for a snack, it left me with a hard, sore knot the size of a ping pong ball.  Keith tells me this is not the usual case, that I must be hypersensitive, but whatever is going on, I do my best to stay away from yellow flies.

When I jogged, I always passed one place on the road where one particular yellow fly made it his business to give me grief.  He buzzed my head like a crop duster, and I am sure my pace increased to near world record speeds on that hundred foot stretch of highway every day.  I am also certain I looked pretty funny swinging and swatting away with both hands, but it was the only way to keep myself free of those painful welts.

I thought of that fly chasing me down the road when I read this verse:  But as for you, O man of God…pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and godliness, 1 Tim 6:11.

Most of the time we focus on the things we are supposed to be pursuing in that passage, but did you ever wonder exactly how you should be pursuing them?  Like a yellow fly, as it turns out.

And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" And he said, "Who are you, Lord?" And he said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Acts 9:4-5

I did a little research into that word “pursue” and those are the verses that popped up.  “Pursue” is translated more than any other English word, more in fact, than all of the choices put together, “persecute,” just as it is in Acts 9.  We are supposed to “persecute” all righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and meekness.  What?!

Just think for a minute about how Saul went about persecuting Christians.  He went from city to city.  He made appointments with the authorities to get what we might think of as warrants in order to put them in prison.  Then he testified against them to make his case.  Many times this persecution was “to the death.”  Once he finished in one place, he moved to the next, and to the next, and to the next.  Persecuting Christians was his life.

How much of our lives do we spend trying to become more righteous, more godly, more loving, and all those other things that Paul says we should pursue?  How much time, how much effort, how much sacrifice do we give to it?  Or do we instead offer excuses for poor behavior we should have mastered years ago, for sins we refuse to overcome?  If we were pursuing righteousness the way Paul pursued—persecuted--Christians, if we spent our lives doing whatever was necessary to learn to love as we ought, if we “buffeted our bodies” to become more godly, if we spent the same amount of time bolstering our faith that we do soothing our egos or building our bank accounts, maybe those things wouldn’t be so difficult to chase down.

When I think about being chased down the road by that pesky, persecuting yellow fly, I instantly understand what I should be doing to become a better disciple of my Lord.  Come out and visit some day and I’ll see if we can’t arrange the same experience for you!

Follow after (pursue, persecute) peace with all men and holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord,  Heb 12:14.

Dene Ward

It’s another Monday.  Am I ready for the week ahead?  If I assembled with my brethren yesterday, and our assembly accomplished the purpose God meant it to when he ordained it, I should be not only ready, bur “revved up and rarin’ to go.”

On a Monday, you ask incredulously?  Maybe you did not get out of Sunday what you were supposed to.  So what is the purpose of our assembling together?  It may not be what you have always thought. 

I think our best verse is good old Hebrews 10:25, only forget the way we always use it, shaking our fingers in the faces of those who miss services.  Start with the verse ahead:  let us consider one another to provoke to love and good works... exhorting one another... 

Too often we focus all our attention on the assembly as if that is the whole of our service to God.  What it should be is refueling, so we can go out and continue to serve during the week.  Romans 12:1 is key to understanding this: ...present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  You probably have a version that says "spiritual service," but that word can also be translated "worship,” and sometimes is.  The way I live my life, if I live it as and because God wants it, is a type of worship to God, not just those few hours a week.  By compartmentalizing our religion to a certain day, time, and place, we are giving God those lame sacrifices Malachi talks about in Malachi 1:8.  God expects our all, all the time--not just on Sundays.  And he has given us our brethren to encourage us and keep us on the right track when we meet together, provoking one another to love and good works as we go about the rest of our week.  "One another" means we are all doing that, not just the preacher.  Did you do your part yesterday, or did you go just to be entertained?

Somehow we think rituals are the only things that qualify as worship.  Many passages in the Old Testament mention the people praying, or singing, or sacrificing, and then "they worshiped," almost as if those other acts were not worship (e.g. 2 Chron 29:29,30).  And maybe there is a point there:  we can do all those things, at the "right time," in the "right place" (translation:  on a pew inside a building with a certain sign over the door), and still not be worshiping.  Worshiping is prostrating the heart before God, not the body, and he expects us to do that all day long, every day.

So am I ready to worship God again this week, all week?  If I refueled myself, drained out and changed the old dirty oil and filter, and vacuumed out the grime and dust of life, I should be able to serve God with all my might—whatever level that is in my stage of life at this particular time--and make it through another week in a world that should be foreign to my nature, instead of comfortable.  And then I will be anxious for another day of replenishment next Sunday, because the need will be so obvious to me.

Through him then let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually but to do good and to communicate forget not;  for with such sacrifice God is well pleased.  Heb 13:15,16

Dene Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.

Jer 8:4  “Shall men fall and not rise again?  Shall one turn aside and not return?”

We would be astonished to see someone trip and fall and not get up. Probably, we would rush to his aid, thinking he was seriously injured. But we would be totally confused should he say, “No, I am all right; I decided not to get up because I like it down here.” 

God sent his prophets to warn the people of Israel that they were as foolish as that man. They fell into idolatry and sin and rather than admit their mistake, they said, “I like it down here.” Bible students know that God caused his people to be carried into Babylonian captivity for their sin. Finally, they awakened from their sin-induced stupor and did a U-turn in their hearts, so God returned them to the Promised Land.

In our society, many seem to be like the man fallen on the ground who proclaims, “Life is great down here; get your head out of the clouds and join me.”  Anyone with any moral standards left at all can look about and see many reasons for God to bring judgment on this wicked society – fornication abounds to the extent that when one sins with the same partner for more than a week, it is a “relationship”, babies older than John the Baptist who “leapt for joy” in Elizabeth’s womb (Lk 1:44) are murdered every day, the judicial system protects criminals who prey on society from the justice due them, etc. How can we not fear that a Day of Judgment from God is about to be unleashed upon us? Even the religious leaders, who should be crying aloud for repentance, plead for acceptance of sinners who refuse to repent and who continue to grow worse and worse, “The prophets [evangelists] prophesy falsely and the priests rule by what profits them and MY PEOPLE love to have it so” Jer 5:30-31).

God’s good news is that we have a savior who will help us to our feet, who will brush the dirt of our evil desires from us, and who will turn us from the ways of the world into the old paths that lead to God.

Jer 6:16 “Thus says the LORD: Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.”

Or as Jesus’ invitation: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Mt 11:28).

Keith Ward

The biggest clearance sales of the year start today.  I clip coupons all the time, but clearance sales are good, too, and a clearance sale that I can use a coupon on makes my day.

Where we live, I often resort to catalogues.  The shipping works out about the same as the gas it would cost to go to the store, and when you add in the time, there is no contest.  As you might guess, I am not one of those “Born to shop” women.  I only shop when I need something.  But when a clearance catalogue hits my mailbox, I usually try to think ahead to what I might need in the near future. 

Of course you know the problem with clearance catalogues.  They only have some of the colors left, in only some of the sizes—usually the weird colors and odd sizes, say, chartreuse size 0 or fluorescent orange plaid size XXXL.  If you want the good stuff you have to call in early, preferably the same day you get the catalogue, and have several options on your list.  That way you might get one or two things you need in the correct size and a reasonably non-hideous color.

If something is totally free, I am not quite as picky.  I had a coupon once for a free 12 pack of one of those odd new Dr Pepper flavors, if I also bought a regular 12 pack.  Keith is the Dr Pepper drinker in this house, but he doesn’t like his favorite things fooled around with—not his coffee, not his iced tea, not his Coke, and certainly not his Dr Pepper.  I almost did not use the coupon.  Then I thought, hey, it’s free!  If he doesn’t like it, I can give it to someone else.  We were nearly out of drinks and the regular Dr Pepper was on sale, so it was no loss to us if that is what happened.

Isn’t it amazing how people line up for good sales, and go nuts for things that are free, but no one is lining up for the most important free thing there is—eternal life!  You can’t even tell anyone about this great deal without them looking at you askance and walking away in the middle of a sentence--or making a pronouncement like, “I don’t discuss religion and politics.”

Unfortunately the majority of the world hasn’t a spiritual bone in its body.  People are all too consumed with the here and now, with immediate results, with instant gratification of any and every desire.  It’s interesting that Paul calls such people “babies” in his letter to the Corinthians.  It takes spiritual maturity, an ability to see beyond the present and to weigh the true importance of things, to understand that this world is not what counts.

A baby will cover his face with a blanket and think no one can see him.  He has not yet learned that there is any other perspective than his own.  He thinks if he cannot see you, then you cannot see him.  That seems to be how many adults live their lives as well.  The only things that matter to them are what they are going through, and how it affects them.   The self-centeredness of an infant has grown into the selfishness of an adult. 

So it is difficult for people to realize that they are sinners in need of salvation.  That is the first hurdle to cross.  You cannot convert a person who thinks he is spiritually safe.  That is why Jesus had more luck with harlots and publicans than with the religious leaders of his day.  And the sad thing is that if they could ever realize their need, the solution is free!  No coupons needed.  Yet they miss the greatest clearance sale ever.  Salvation has been on sale for thousands of years.  100% off, totally free.

Don’t let pride and immaturity make you miss the bargain of your life.

So then as through one trespass the judgment came unto all men to condemnation, even so through one act of righteousness the free gift came unto all men to justification of life, Rom 5:18.

Dene Ward

(Ii will be posting Mon-Wed-Fri for the next two weeks.  It will be easier for you to keep up during your busy times.)   

If you are like me, it took a long day, or maybe even more than one, to get out those boxes of decorations and turn your homes into fantasy lands of colored lights, sparkly globes and shiny tinsel.  Awhile back I finally gave into my sons’ groans and stopped hanging the handmade elementary school ornaments.  Still, I have a fondness for macaroni glued to a paper plate, spray-painted gold and flecked with green glitter, and toilet paper rolls attired in shiny red paper, white lace, and sequins.  They bring back a lot of precious memories my sons will not understand until they have their own masterpieces hanging on an evergreen limb.

And have you ever noticed that people adorn themselves as well?  Not their clothing, though this time of year I see magazine and newspaper ads full of expensive, gaudy clothes I would never have a place to wear.  I am talking about their behavior.  Even the biggest heathen in the world does not want to be called a grinch and struggles to adorn himself with “the holiday spirit.”  I am glad that at least one month a year we must put up with less grouchiness, less complaining, and less selfish behavior from the public at large.  But I wonder what God thinks about it.

The true Christian has the “mind of the spirit” no matter what month the calendar shows.  He is liberal in his giving, not just to get in a tax deduction before the end of his fiscal year, but because he truly wants to help others.  He is considerate of others, not because someone has reminded him with a poke in the ribs that “it’s Christmas,” but because he is in the habit of serving others.  He smiles and laughs, not because he has indulged in a little too much “holiday cheer,” but because he lives a life of joy as a child of God.  He shows courtesy in traffic, in parking lots, and in long check-out lines, not because of the lights and wreaths hanging all over town to remind him this is the month for “peace on earth, good will to men,” but because he lives that way all year long.

Next week the calendar will change.  “January” will signal the start of a new year.  Will my behavior change as well?  Or do I live the same way regardless of the calendar, as a Christian who follows in the steps of the one I claim to be my Lord--kind, courteous, considerate, joyful, and full of goodwill to all?

Put on therefore as God’s elect, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another and forgiving each other, if any man have a complaint against any, even as the Lord forgave you, so also do you.  And above all these things, put on love which is the bond of perfectness, Col 3:12-14.

Dene Ward

           
My dogs brought me a present the other afternoon.  I walked out onto the carport and there by my chair, where I like to sit in the morning with my last cup of coffee, lay a dead possum.  Not just any dead possum—this one they had buried for awhile so it would age properly, then dug up to lay before my “throne.”  I imagine that when the wind blew the right way, my neighbors knew about my present too.

I have had cats bring me equally lovely gifts before, but this was a first for dogs.  As you can imagine, I did not jump for joy.  In fact, I hardly expressed any appreciation at all.  I had not felt very good that day—these medications do a number on my stomach, and this gift, no matter how sincerely it may have been meant, did not help.

These two small creatures rely on me for everything.  I feed them, make sure they have their vaccinations and medications, care for them when they feel bad, and play with them when I have the chance.  And for that little bit they want nothing more in this world than to please me.  Red heelers are often called “Velcro dogs” because they stick next to their masters’ sides.  Magdi and Chloe will even turn their noses up at a treat just so I can pet them.  Loving is much more important to them than food. 

And if for any reason I am displeased with them, their ears go down, their heads bow, their tails are tucked and they practically crawl on their knees to me.  Magdi will rub her head against my leg over and over.  I know she is saying, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry.”  If she isn’t, she certainly has me fooled.

So how do I treat my Master?  Do I want nothing more in the world than to please Him?  Do I repent on my knees in abject sorrow when I know I don’t?  Or am I too proud for that?  Do I truly understand that any gift I give is really no more to Him than that dead possum was to me?  Do I appreciate that I can never repay what He has done for me, and therefore try my best to show gratitude and reverence with the gift of obedience and faith, a gift that still falls far short of repayment? 

Sometimes I wonder if dogs show more respect for their masters than we do for ours, and their masters are anything but perfect, holy, and awesome.  Maybe we should take a lesson.

For we are all become as one who is unclean, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away…Even so you also, when you have done all the things that are commanded you say, “We are unprofitable servants.  We have done that which it was our duty to do,” Isa 64:6; Luke 17:10.

Dene Ward

‘Tis always the season for what I am talking about this morning.  Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all longsuffering and teaching, 2 Tim 4:2.  While we all understand a certain concept of “a wrong time,” that concept does not stretch to mean that when I do not want to hear it, I don’t have to.  When exactly do any of us want to be reproved or rebuked?  Exhorted maybe, but not reproved and certainly not rebuked.  I have yet to find a person who will tell me a time when hearing about his faults is “in season,” including me.  Yet that is exactly what Timothy the evangelist was commanded to do, tell them when they want to hear it and when they don’t.

As Paul goes on to tell the preacher, people will want you to scratch their itching ears, what today we might call stroking someone’s ego.  And this has always been, for Old Testament Israel was bad about listening to the prophets they wanted to listen to instead of the ones who told them the truth.  Ahab told Jehoshaphat, who had asked if a real prophet was anywhere around, There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of Jehovah, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but I hate him, for he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil, 1 Kgs 22:8.  Funny how it never dawned on Ahab that he could fix that problem himself without touching a hair of Micaiah’s head.

I have said before that our society is worse about this than in the past—a bunch of namby-pambies who cannot take criticism--and maybe it is worse today than a hundred years ago, but the scriptures make it plain that God’s teachers have always had to deal with arrogant people who think they need no correction about anything at all.  I suppose it will always be so.  But we should do our best to make sure we are not among them because neither God nor Jesus ever had anything good to say about people like that.  In fact, some of Jesus’ strongest condemnations were to people who claimed to be the most righteous.  He said that their attitude of self-righteousness made them just the opposite, a brood of vipers, among other harsh accusations. 

Examining ourselves and learning to do better are always in season simply because they are always necessary.  I shouldn’t blame the preacher, the elders, or any other caring brother or sister because he does as God commands when I am the one at fault.

‘Tis the season, whether we think so or not—fa,la,la,la,la--la,la,la,la!

A wonderful and a horrible thing is come to pass in the land; the prophets prophesy falsely and the priests bear rule by their means, and my people love to have it so, and what will the end thereof be?...They have healed also the hurt of my people slightly saying, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace, Jer 5:31; 6:14.

Dene Ward

Our piece of property was once a watermelon field on the back side of a family farm, approached by a dirt lane a half mile long.  When we first saw it, the ground was furrowed under the waist high grass and weeds, and a pushed up wind row ran down the length of it parallel to the north property line.  A few volunteer vines wound their way through the weeds, laden with green-striped melons, most of them too small to even consider picking.  What the land had once been was obvious.

It had served other purposes as well.  After we moved onto the property, the power company sent a crew to plant the poles and string the wires that would connect us to the outside world.  One of the young men looked around and said, “I know this place.  I went to school with one of the boys and we’d come back here to hunt rat----.”  Instantly he stopped and muttered, “Well—you don’t need to know that.”  But within a week we knew exactly what he had started to say as the evidence began to pile up.  That first summer we killed four rattlesnakes, the smallest of which was four feet long, two cottonmouths, and several coral snakes.

The snake population has dwindled after all these years, and the only volunteer melons come up in the garden now.  But there is still more evidence of the property’s past. 

When we moved here, our closest neighbor advised us to have the wind row scraped into a raised road so we would always have access, even in wet weather, very good advice as it turned out.  What the tractor left behind was a high, compact, dirt driveway, but it was littered with broken glass.  Someone had tossed quite a few beer bottles into the wind row--those boys were obviously doing more than hunting rattlesnakes on the back forty all those years ago.  That first summer we gave our boys, who were then 6 and 8, a nickel for every piece of glass they picked up, and it was soon safe to drive and walk on.

Yet now, twenty-seven years later, as I walk down the drive with the morning sun shining on the sandy road, I still see it glinting off tiny pieces of glass.  The sand they have been buried in has worn off their sharp edges making them far too smooth to endanger either tires or bare feet.  I usually pick up a couple dozen every summer.  Then the next year, yet more will have worked their way to the top from the simple erosion of wind and rain.

What is hidden beneath will always come out.  No matter how hard you try to hide the ugliness, something will always give it away.  “By their fruits you shall know them,” Jesus said, and, “Out of the heart the mouth speaks,” Matt 7:20; Luke 6:45.  When we try to hide our character flaws from others, the only person we really manage to hide them from is ourselves.

God will help you overcome the weaknesses that beset you, but he cannot do it until you admit them to yourself, and then to him.  Blaming others, blaming circumstances, blaming “the way I am” will never fix things, any more than me blaming those teenage boys for throwing their beer bottles got rid of the glass in my driveway.  But God can help you mend your heart and correct your ways.  He promises he will always supply a way of escape and strength to endure the times of stress and the simple erosion of life that make those ugly things rise to the surface.

Every year I see those sparkly pieces of glass in the driveway, but their edges have worn smooth and they are no longer a danger.  God can help the same way.  You may feel something inside begin to rise to the surface, but with his help you can keep it under control so that it no longer hurts you or others.  In your surrender to him, the strength you have will multiply beyond anything you have ever experienced, or could ever have imagined.

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.  I John 4:4.

Dene Ward