Not just a November thing

This evening was one of those evenings where my mind was racing. I grabbed my things and went to a familiar space in hopes to get some thoughts out. As I sat pen in one hand and chai in the other I found myself fiercely scribbling all the things on my mind (some of which I'm sure when I read later will make no sense). I stopped to take a breath and as I did I realized the pent up frustration and irritation. In the back of my mind the word "thanksgiving" continued to roll around. So I literally stopped my previous ranting and begun my list of  thanksgiving.

The things I wrote at the beginning of "unloading" my brain are still there to some extent but the view is different.

Don't remove

In a recent post about weeds I wrote about the necessity to remove them otherwise they will take over and then become apart of your every day life... well I learned something new - removing doesn't ultimately clean or heal.
I know that makes no sense. What do you mean "don't remove?" They're weeds what else are you going to do to get rid of them? I understand that logic because I thought that too but let me explain with more landscaping.

As I told you, I work outside and the picture I painted last post of the weeds that had become tree is all true. We finally cleared that whole area. It took our crew a couple of weeks and a couple trips to urgent care due to a really bad case of poison ivy. It cost blood (many cuts and scratches), sweat, and emergency runs but it is done. I left for vacation and upon my return the once cleared area now has new weeds growing quickly already about knee high. We removed the weeds and got poison ivy but for what? More weeds?
Here's the key we didn't replace that area with anything. If we simply remove without replacing weeds will grow back. They may not be the exact same weeds as before but weeds will come.

So we must not just remove but replace. Where there are weeds of lies, replace with truth. Where there are weeds of anger, replace with joy. Whatever weeds are there replace with God - whether it be specifically his love, joy, truth, etc. replace the weeds with Him. 

re·place  

/riˈplās/

Verb Take the place of. Provide or find a substitute for (something that is broken, old, or inoperative).

In order to replace there still has to be removal but it can't stop there. Weeds will come but if you plant truth, lies will be choked out. 

Saying No

I was recently in the running for a pretty great job. The process, though slow was moving right along. I kept passing all the check points. But it was with one phrase that I knowingly removed myself. Why?



This life is not mine.