STICKY SITUATION

I didn't intend for my worn-daily athletic shoes to fill their creases with dirt and pitch. All I did was notice the pine cone and twig debris under the evergreens along the backyard fence. I took a bucket, walked through the mess, and picked up all but the underlying needles. Those would have to wait for another day, when I had a rake and more energy.

I dumped the “collection” in the garbage bin, but as I walked over the driveway, I became aware of a “muck-muck” noise and a sense of stickiness under my shoes. You probably guessed. My under-the-tree task added tree sap and tree junk to the bottom of my athletic shoes. No way would I walk in those over the house rug—so off the shoes came. I hoped that as they dried out, I could pry out the muck with a sharp instrument (okay, my “compass” from high school trig math days—back when the “dangerous” pointed side wasn't yet outlawed).

I didn't have perfect results of “sticky-ickies” removal, but at least my “yard shoes” are back in business, but won't be getting near the sticky tree debris. I guess I could be clever and pull plastic bags over my shoes. Or else use some really antique tennies now delegated to yard-work and not allowed in the house....

I wonder how often, instead of picking up pitch under trees, we let down our guards and pick up the mucky, sticky, unwelcome conversational values of our non-Christian world. I remember my shock and disappointment when a young woman who grew up in a Christian home lost her cool and called me a vulgar name. Where did she acquire such gutter language? Not, that I know, from her Jesus-following parents. But I know she had a second life away from the God-honoring values of her upbringing. It had a screen and a keyboard, and from it, vulgar language and values likely entered her eyes and heart.

The apostle Paul knew how culture clashed with Jesus-centered values. He saw it at every city where he visited to evangelize, but it seems he pulled out all the stops of reproof when he wrote to the church at Ephesus:

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths.” (Ephesians 4:29)

“Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.” (Ephesians 4:31)

“Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place.” (5:4)

The apostle's alternative mouth-style was this: “thanksgiving” (Ephesians 5:4).

Granted, there are times when we need to address tough topics, but it's wrong to resort to the world's lazy and mucky language. It needs to go where my collection of pitch-drenched needles and twigs went: the disposal bin. Which is to say: ditch negativity, raise the integrity level of everyday conversation, including the virtual connections. Aim for words that are “helpful for building others up according to their needs....Be kind and compassionate” (Ephesians 4:32).

If tempted to use the world's coarse vocabulary, think of the pitch-drenched needle debris I scooped up from under the trees. A spoonful of those....ugh!

HEAVENLY-MINDED OR EARTHLY GOOD?

Hope fills my prayers. Hope... that the situations and people that I pray for will find transformation in Jesus Christ. Hope and Biblical assurance.... that God hears those prayers with unimaginable compassion for the people, places and problems that came to this planet He created.

I think C.S. Lewis captured this well—and as I re-read his words, I'm reminded that he made a 180-degree turn from atheism to faith in God. He wrote in Mere Christianity:

“Hope is one of the theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is.

“If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.”

The apostle Paul was so burdened about people becoming Christ-followers that he imagined himself as miserable as a woman in labor. (Not that he had personal experience in that!) He wrote the church in Galatia, “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:9).

He didn't live Sunday-to-Sunday. He lived today-to-promised-eternity and heavenly citizenship, eagerly waiting for Jesus, “who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body” (Phil 3:21).

Writing in old, old age, reflecting on what he'd learned personally from Jesus, the apostle John wrote: “Now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

With those words, he thumbed in time to the last pages of history. What encouragement to know the outcome!

I've heard of people who like to start a mystery or who-done-it book, but take a peek at the last chapter to see how it will turn out. That takes the mental exercise out of it! But we don't have to wonder about the incidents and characters, the clue-plants and distractions that are parcel to who-done-its. We know already Who-done-it! The sinless One who visited planet earth, taught, suffered, died, rose, returned to the Father...and is coming again!

GOT YOUR GOAT?

My neighborhood is quite a suburban mix; single-family homes, apartments and townhouses, mobile home courts, and even a pasture nibbled down regularly by a small herd of goats. When God created goats, I wonder if He stifled a chuckle. Their bearded little heads and nervy behavior bring a smile to my face when I drive or walk past their pasture.

One day I thought about the phrase “got your goat.” I knew it was connected to situations when something or someone upset or angered someone else. Like, “Sorry, didn't mean to get your goat.” Why goat​? Why not another animal, like dog or cat or cow or baboon? If you have ever wondered, it's supposedly related to how goats could be used to calm racehorses. If a nervous, on-edge horse's “calm goat” was removed, it would possibly get upset and lose the race.

Well, I won't get into Derby fashion (if you want to, try this link: What To Wear: Kentucky Derby fashion and outfits for women & men | KentuckyDerby.com ) But it's interesting that the cultural icon of animal prowess (read: prizing fast horses) has a big-hat dress code! But goats are also in its culture....

Maybe more needs to be said about goats. They're interesting creatures:

*They have a reputation for being curious.

*They can be taught their name and come when called.

*They're picky eaters.

*Their sneezes are alarm sounds.

*They don't like water. Confronted by a puddle or stream, they try to leap over them.

*They're excellent climbers.

*They have an efficient digestive system. (Sorry, not tin cans.)

*They have distinct personalities: shy, nervous, curious, aggressive, affectionate.

*Their tendency to be fearful means they like having an escape “platform” or “partition” in their resting or eating areas.

In our era, their name has become an acrostic for excellence or prowess—Greatest Of All Time. Sports heroes crave that distinction. Likewise, standouts in other vocations or positions.

You know where I'm going with this. In God's writing of history, only ONE was the Greatest of All Time. Jesus. Got HIM?

BY THEIR FRUITS.....

I was rushing through a local mega-mart this spring when a little plant in a near-the-register display whimpered, “Take me home!” You've seen those random near-checkout display shelves. The ones with the same compelling power as those of candy and gum by the conveyor belt where a child is apt to tug on a parent sleeve and say, “Please, Mommy (or Daddy), please.” The bedding plant looked so forlorn, I almost didn't “listen,” but I did decide to adopt it, and re-homed the plant in the sunniest place in my yard, right next to the mailbox. I put the wire supportive “tomato cage” around the infant plant it as preemptive protection!

I didn't hold much hope for its survival, but that little tomato start hung in there and grew and grew...and now is expressing its gratitude with tiny red, joy-prompting globes. “Cherry tomatoes.” Maybe call them “cheery tomatoes,” too, because their vibrant red skin promises delight inside, and I am not disappointed when I add them to my meal.

With time, my pitiful clearance plant grew strong and fruitful. So it is in the Christian walk, with time as we take in the nourishment of Living Water (scripture) and bask in the Sun of Righteousness (the Lord Jesus). And maybe that's another way of looking at His parable about the fig tree (Luke 13:6-9). In the parable, a barren tree was due for the rubbish pile because it just didn't produce figs. The farmer decided to give it one more year to prove itself. The analogy is to complacent Christians who aren't going anywhere in their faith walk. The lesson of “one last chance” holds both hope and fear.

Tomatoes, of course, are “annuals” with just one chance to bloom and yield fruit. Then the cycle begins again with the tiny seeds in each fruit that can carry on the fruit line. Without reproducing believers, faith would not grow and spread.

Living in an agrarian society, Jesus wisely taught from common things the people knew in their quest to feed and house their families with the basic necessities. And though our times have taken food production to new and sophisticated levels (ever eaten a green house tomato?), the lessons of God's creation never fail to teach again, and again.

Maybe next time you grab a tomato to put in a salad or BLT, pause a moment. That red globe didn't pop out of the air. God had a plan for it to grow and reproduce. Sound (humanly) familiar?