Mushrooms or oaks?

I read this quote on Facebook this morning:

When God wants to make a mushroom, he does it overnight, but when he wants to make a giant oak, he takes a hundred years. Great souls are grown through struggles and storms and seasons of suffering. Be patient with the process.-Rick Warren

Such good perspective for me.  I like things to be done quickly and seamlessly.  Yet, from what I have gathered so far, life isn't like that.  God could work that way all the time, but often times doesn't.  He could have sent his people to the promised land the quick and direct way, but he chose to have them detour over and over again for 40 years.  Jesus could have lived an easy and pain free life on earth, but he didn't.  Instead, He was mocked, disregarded, tempted by satan in the wilderness, and persecuted to the point of death - for something He was not guilty of.

I heard a sermon the week before last.  He said the life without struggle and pain would be easy.  You would wake up, go to work, go home, do it again the next day.  And that life would be boring.  As much as we say we do, we don't really want a life free of trouble.  Because then we don't experience the victory found only in Christ Jesus.  In the struggle and pain, we see, we feel, we embrace the power of God.  God's love is able to rescue us...even in the midst of trouble.

Isaiah 61:1-3 are some of my favorite verses.


The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.

Yes, I think I'll take the struggles and storms in order to become an oak tree rather than a mushroom.

Steady plodding

From my time with the Lord one day last week.  No real reason to share other than vulnerability.

Lord.  Thank you. Thank you.  Thank you. that there are so many things I have to be thankful for.  Most of all for you.  And for the many ways you love me.  For bringing me out of the pit and setting me upon a rock - you.  You've given me a firm foundation. You've given me yourself.  You've given me everything. 

I just want to sit in your presence.  I'm grateful that I have the opportunity to do just that!  

Prayer...

The lord asks: am I willing to risk everything for him?

Am I?

Lord: Am I willing to give up my dreams?

Tears stream down my face...  

Lord: I have store houses of surprises for you!

Reminded of the rich young ruler.  Bleh...

Lord: Elizabeth Ann. I know you want to GO and DO. I want you to learn to BE. 

Lord am I not good enough? To go and do?  (burst into tears)

Lord: KNOW THAT THAT IS NOT TRUE!

I want x and y and z...

Lord: I know you do. I know you.  YOU ARE THE MOST PRECIOUS ONE TO ME. 

Luke 11:9-13

9 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent;

12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?

13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

Good gifts are more of the Holy Spirit...

1 Cor 13:

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant

5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;

6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,

10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.

12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

-- lord teach me how to LOVE

-- lord you ARE love

-- you are patient and kind etc

-- I see dimly now but in full in heaven or when you return. 

Reminded of steady plodding: 

Cassie mentioned the phrase "steady plodding" long ago and it has stuck.  It is so easy for me to get frustrated that things aren't happening NOW.  But i think the reality is we are called to move ahead one day at a time, steadily plodding forth with the lord, and then one day we look back and see all that he's done and are reminded of things that we may have taken for granted at the time.  

KEEP trusting and following.