June 2022 – Pilgrim with a Pen

Speaking of parched plants and famished flowers…the post I shared yesterday, A Drought in the Storm, reminded me of another post I wrote around this time last year — before I even started this blog.

By the time you’re done reading this, you’ll definitely be convinced that I don’t have a green thumb…and you might even be tempted to report me to PETP — People for the Ethical Treatment of Plants…🤣…but here goes nothin’:

In Matthew 6:28, Jesus asks us to “consider the lillies of the field.”🌷🌻🌹🌼

This verse came to mind as I took the time to consider mine today, LITERALLY…and…I found some of them in pretty bad shape 😣…after just a few days with no rain during the “dog days” of summer🌞, they were already looking pretty rough!

I don’t have a green thumb AT ALL, but I’m also no dummy. It was pretty simple, these flowers needed water ASAP.

I should have been watering them daily, BUT…life is busy and there always seems to be more pressing matters. But I couldn’t put it off any longer…or else all of the time, effort, and money we had put in just a few weeks ago to plant them would have been for all for naught! 😩

As I was watering, I started thinking about how God compares our own lives to the life of a flower – beautiful, yet fragile and short. And just as flowers need water to live physically, we also need the Living Water that Jesus provides to live spiritually.

We may think we are able to go without it for extended periods of time when the conditions in our lives are favorable — but when those “dog days” of life come, even a short time without His sustenance can be irreversibly damaging.

Thankfully, although the flowers in my yard did lose some of their blooms, the plant itself remained green. There’s still hope to save it from complete destruction.

And the same goes for us — as long as we’re still on this earth, there’s still hope for us too. As long as we are breathing, we are never too far gone for Jesus to bring us back to life spiritually!

The Bible says God is faithful to send rain on both the “just and the unjust,” but experience teaches us that there will also be times when it is necessary to SEEK out water in order to live.

When I saw my plants in need of water, I didn’t just pray like Elijah for a miraculous rain, I went and sought water…from my garden hose.

An ordinary and practical solution — but I have faith that the results it will produce will be nothing short of miraculous, restoring abundant life to a half-dead plant!

Maybe lately you’re finding yourself a bit parched as well, and you’ve been looking for God to send a “miraculous rain” to bring you back to life too.

But maybe what He’s really asking you to do is to simply seek Him at the water source, His Holy Word, a well that never runs dry.

Pick up your Bible, attend a worship service, read Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, learn about His teachings, believe, be baptized and live your life at the well.

If you do that, He promises that YOU will be like a tree planted by the waters.

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit” (Jeremiah 17:7-8).

Until next time…keep planting and watering. 😉

-PWAP

“7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”…10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”…13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:7-14)

7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye. shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh. findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. – (Matthew 7:7-8)

“As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; when the wind passes over, it vanishes, and its place remembers it no more.”
(Psalm 103:15- 16)

According to the calendar, summer “officially” began last week…

However, according to my electric bill, summer actually started last month…and its been breathing down our proverbial necks ever since. 🥵😣😒🙄😎🤣

(Move to Florida, they said…it’ll be fun, they said.) 🤣🤣🤣🙄🙄🙄🤣🤣🤣

Besides the heat and humidity, summer in subtropical climates also comes with plenty of rain.

The rainy season in Florida is that magical time of year when every afternoon like clockwork, the clouds roll in and it rains cats and dogs for at least an hour or so, allowing enough time for our plants and flowers to get a drink — and local theme parks to cash in on selling oversized-trash bags to tourists for 15 bucks a pop. 😳😳😳

While I’m not a Florida-native, I’ve grown somewhat accustomed to this monsoon-like weather pattern over the years.

And for the most part, I’ve learned to plan my day around these storms.

Which is exactly why it threw me for a loop when summer kicked off with a bit of a dry spell this year….

Don’t get me wrong— the forecasters still predicted showers every morning…and the storm clouds still rolled in every afternoon…

…but day after day, the dark clouds made an appearance, only to pass over us without releasing a single drop of rain.

I found myself parched…and perplexed.

🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

And as the days went by, I watched my flowers and plants begin to wither without these daily showers.

But I was still convinced that the rain was coming, just like it had all those years before.

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And that’s when I got to thinking…

How often do we spend our time bracing for “storms of life” that never come? And how parched are we becoming in the process?

From thunderstorms to hurricanes, we all know forecasters get it wrong A LOT.

And so do newscasters for that matter. 🙄

Just like the predicted chance of storms sometimes never come to pass, we have to remember that some of the doom and gloom that we hear predicted on CNN or Fox News will never come to pass either.

Right now, our country is a buzz over things like inflation, gas prices, wars, gun control, and abortion laws, just to name a few.

It seems a dark cloud has settled.

But no matter how ominous the Doppler radar of our lives may look, it would be helpful to remember that all storms eventually blow over — and the dreadful things we think will happen, sometimes never even come to pass.

God doesn’t want us to spend our lives anxiously awaiting the next storm or wondering where the next bolt of lightning may strike (Philippians 4:6-7).

If we spend our days simply “preparing for the storm,” instead of “preventing the drought,” we may end up like my flowers — parched.

Instead of constantly keeping our eyes on the skies, God says we would do better to meditate on Him instead.

And when we do, the Bible says we will be “like a tree planted by the water, That extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:7-8)

Stay in God’s Word, hydrate yourself with its Living Water…and don’t be anxious for the drought or the storm, because God is the God of it all.

Until next time…

-PWAP

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or set foot on the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does. -Psalm 1:1-3

Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD
And whose trust is the LORD. “For he will be like a tree planted by the water, That extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought Nor cease to yield fruit. -Jeremiah 17:7-8

Month: June 2022

Famished Flowers

A Drought in the Storm