1 Kings 19:11-12 (New International Version)
11 The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.”
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.
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Psalm 46:10 New International Version
“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
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As I was picking blackberries over the last few weeks, I found it pretty amazing how the Lord uses daily tasks to teach the most practical lessons. We had a brief discussion in our Sunday School (we call them Connection Groups now) class about people who come in for counseling who have lost their “joy” and that many times we only gauge our relationship with God by the amount of “emotion” that we feel. Are we getting that “thrill and chill” every time we sit in a pew? Do we think the Lord is forgetting us because we are going through an earthquake or some storm? Or, are we going through a refining fire in the Potter’s kiln and we are just whining and complaining too much to hear His STILL, SOFT voice?
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It makes you think. Before we bought our house just over 5 years ago, I was hoping to have property big enough (and with enough sunlight) where I could order some blackberry vines and grow some of this fruit that I loved so much. Shortly after moving here, I noticed some flowering on some vines all around the backside of our property. I wasn’t sure what I was looking at….When I got closer to the the vines, I thought—“IT CAN’T BE!! Did the Lord put these vines in for me????” Shortly afterward, when I saw the wild berries appearing from the vines, I found out, HE INDEED HAD….It was going to take some work to get them under control though. It was up to us to either just leave them for bird food, or to work very hard every year to ACTUALLY have a harvest to make jams, cobblers, etc…
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So the Lord taught me a lesson with the blackberries that I’ve been meticulously picking for the last few weeks. A few years ago, the brambles were VERY overgrown, and unwieldy. It was difficult to pick the berries and the new growth was sitting on top of old growth that was laying about 3-4 ft. high. Some brambles (vines) would grow 8-10’ long. Once I started reading up on how to prune and cut away all of them, VERY SLOWLY, year by year, we started making progress on the ease of picking, and ultimately clearing away the old vines each year. Still, it is tedious work to pick the berries. I have to wear a rose glove on my left hand to pull back the thorn-covered branches, and use my right hand to pick. This year, I pulled out an older pair of shoes and put gasoline on them (enough odor to keep chiggers at bay), and I go sprayed-up because the bugs (ticks and mosquitoes are the worst) seem to enjoy my company. It is time-consuming and you have to plan on getting scrapes, getting hot, dodging bees, and dropping a few GOOD berries from time-to-time.
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But during the trouble that it takes (and I have neighbors on BOTH sides who do not mess with their wild berries because they don’t have the time to deal with them)…. I learned, that it takes all of the DIFFICULTY to get to the beautiful sweet berry that God created. The berries need the heat to grow. The berries have to have protective thorns or there would NEVER be enough food for humans to eat (the birds can still get their share, but other animals don’t care much for the prickly mess). PRUNING MUST OCCUR, or the plant will just grow mercilessly and not produce much of anything, except a very long, tangling briar!!
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Isn’t all that true for us as well? Perhaps that is what the LORD was trying to tell Elijah too. “I’m not in those earthquakes, winds, and fires of Life, but I can perfect you into the fruit of the person I know you can be if you just have faith in Me.”
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We tend to OVER-COMPLICATE things with our haughty tendencies. Sometimes we need to do something as simple as going out to an old farm or maybe to our backyard and LISTEN to what God really is trying to say to us. Sometimes, we are not going to get a “shake and quake” emotional experience. Sometimes, he just wants us to SHUT UP AND LISTEN. He is telling us once and for all to “Be STILL…” and “KNOW”
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HE IS GOD
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HIS NAME WILL BE EXALTED ABOVE ALL NATIONS AND THE WORLD
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And frankly, folks….that’s good enough for me.
