Clouds

“I’ve looked at life from both sides now, from up and down and still somehow, it’s cloud illusions I recall, I really don’t know clouds at all.”¹

Who gets to say there are only 2 sides?  The conversation starts with looking out the window at 35,000 feet; looking down on the ever changing beauty of the clouds.  Looking out, now, at a sea of flat rippled white, when a few moments ago, the clouds were a vast collection of solo outbursts of joy.  Yet, there is always a horizon where blue sky meets the landscape below.  There is always the horizon never obtainable, yet always the guide.  Was that in the mind of Ole St. Nick when he cried out, “On Dasher…!” Was he not setting out for a new horizon, a new infinity, a new discovery, a new challenge, a new victory or the next new thing?

But alas, the horizon moves on though we chase it. We may watch the sunset, yet we gaze at the horizon in wonder and awe.  Even if we sit and watch, there is a calling, “Come, come, come…!”  It is destiny ever calling, “Come, COME ON! Come on you can make it!  You can make it!” It is the cloud; the cloud of witness not only having lead the way before, but clearing the way for the current warriors, runners, teachers and leaders now. “We made it! You can make it! Come on we want you with us!”

Some clouds provide rain, yet others provide needed shade and still others seem to hold back a large crowd on the edge of the dance floor so that bursts of joy can celebrate on an open canvas above the plains, or above cobalt lakes that reflect pure light.  Each cloud has purpose; not jealous of another, all adding their whispers to the ever building roar, “Come, Come on!”

As I look down far below me, no house, no car, no person can be identified. Yet, when I am there (below) things seem to shout, “See me, notice me and acknowledge me.  Give me significance!” Is that the wrong side? Or is it the side we need to see clearly and own, so it can truly be laid down to reach the next horizon, the next new version of self?  Then that version can be made full so it too, can be laid down for the ever newer, greater, fuller version of a new you and me?

And what if I can join the whispering voices and cheer someone else on as well to see the sky?  Can I lift another’s chin up so their eyes will meet the sky instead of the floor? Maybe that is how life was meant to be lived.

(as always comments are greatly appreciated)

1.       Both Sides by Joni Mitchell,   http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/jonimitchell/bothsidesnow.html

Is there Crap in your Life ?

Have you ever felt like your life was wasted, without purpose or fruitless?? Or maybe it just seems like everything in your life was being turned upside down??

Recently I was reading Luke 13:6-9 and saw it in a new light:

He (Jesus) spoke this parable, “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none. So he said to his gardener, ‘Behold, for these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down therefore. Why waste the ground for it?’ But he answering his master, said to him, ‘Lord, let it alone this year also, until I dig about it, and dung it. And if happily it bears fruit: but if not, then after that I shalt cut it down.”

The vine-dresser asked for ‘3’ things: 'a year' (waiting) ‘a digging' (over turning), and ‘fertilizing’ (adding nutrients).

But before that, there is the ‘digging about’ where everything that we think is established, settled and comfortable in life gets turned upside down and shaken.  If you have ever broken ground for a new garden that is what happens.  The soil gets turned upside down.  We often do it with machinery a plow or a rototiller. It is hard and violent work.  Nothing remains in place.  Everything is shaken. The digging is not shallow but deep. Often times it can be over a foot deep; deep enough to include all the top soil.  All during this “digging about”, unwanted rock, sticks, stumps and old roots are discarded. 

Then, to paraphrase a cultural expression, “Poop Happens”.  The dung is piled, NOT sparingly but generously. In my youth I worked a lot in the family garden and it was a regular spring time event to either make several trips to a local farmers’ bull pen (the only thing missing was the bull) or a local farmer would be summoned by with his manure spreader freshly filled from cleaning out his barn.  When it was time to manure, it was never done sparingly and we were not allowed in the house with those clothes on.

At this point the ground is turned again.  All the manure is worked deeply into the ground until it is uniform.

The ground is ready to be processed by worms, bugs and bacteria converting the soil to food for the tree roots to absorb.  

The final stage is waiting.  The waiting takes TIME; not a day, week, month or season but a whole year for the fruit. We need to understand that The Father is NOT a magician, HE does not do magic. He does process or growth or maturing.  There is no instant fruit, freeze dried (just add water) fruit, micro-wave fruit or even store bought. The Father only has one kind of fruit; it is 100% home grown, natural, organic fruit.  The principle is the Father did not go down to the hardware store or garden center get some Miracle Grow, He used the Poop that already exists in life to produce the fruit he wants.

Note in this parable, the solution to the problem was not to change the Fig tree but change the environment and the food for the tree.  We can produce fruit if we let Holy Spirit work out the things in our lives we are comfortable with and start consuming the right nutrition. 

Deuteronomy 8:3 “He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna… to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”