Kudzu or Oak Tree

I blame facebook for the reason that I have not posted in so long. I started using it about the time of my last post and well, the rest is history. I like it, most of the time, but it does suck up alot of time. It has been fun reconnecting with old friends and finding out what people are up to. Most of the time, connecting with old friends it wonderful, but occasionally, it brings up emotions that I thought I was past. If you ever went to your high school reunion, you can probably relate. It doesn't matter how much time has past, we somehow still gravitated to those old groups, those old feelings and the old junk that made high school such an emotionally draining time. Some people I would like to simply say I am sorry to, for not being the friend I should have been to them. For others I want to thank them for being a positive influence in my life long after they were actually present in my day to day. And yet others simply bring up memories that I had always thought were better left unexplored.

God has a strange way of nudging us to deal with the things that may be holding us back or hurting us in some way. He is a gentle and quiet leader who simply points to the memory and says, "It's time to deal with this one, my dear." He patiently waits until we are ready to respond.

A pastor at my church in San Diego once gave a sermon on memories and why we have them. In a nutshell, he said that God wants us to not only remember where we came from and how He has always faithfully brought us through every situation, but he also wants us to remember just how weak we really are without Him.

I was watching a music video (something I never do, actually) and there were two kids planting a seed. God decided to teach me a lesson right then and there. It is when we are the smallest we can possibly be, covered with six inches of mud that we are desperate enough to search with abandon for His light. We start reaching toward the sky in faith, since we cannot yet even see that light. Then one day, after lots of work, we come into His marvelous light, and we look down and notice that the work and hardship has allowed us to grow out of that small seed we once were and into the thriving plant He always wanted us to be. Journeys through painful situations are not meant to be easy, if they were, we would just be Kudzu instead of an Oak tree.