Springtime Reflections

We’re spending more time outside, now, sprucing up our yards and tending our flowerbeds. I planted a tree in our front yard last week and have been closely inspecting the buds on the others. This year I purchased some fertilizer stakes that are driven into the ground around trees to nourish.
Since I have never used these I read the instructions.

For every two inches of diameter, drive three fertilizer stakes into the ground equal distance from one another at the “drip line.” For those unfamiliar with the description “drip line” a rough sketch depicted the spread of a tree’s branches and dotted a line from the trunk of the tree to the tips of the leaves. The “drip line” is the outermost circumference of leaf life; where the rain and dew drip from the edges of the tree.

This simple principle yields great lessons for the relationship between outer growth and inner growth. The roots directly source the foliage of a tree, and the spreading branches sustain the roots. I thought I was simply providing nutrient to the roots, but I was actually inserting a third party of nutrition into the already symbiotic relationship of branches and roots.
Each depends on the other for maturation.

The inner growth (below ground) and outer growth (above ground) of a tree are often compared to the inner and outer spiritual life of a person. I have heard it said that a person must grow deep roots to bear fruit. On the other hand, our outer foliage is essential to our inner development, too.
Roots need relationship with fruit-bearing branches. It’s not enough to have an inner life…one also must cultivate an outer life of bearing fruit.
The outward life is not just the result; it is essential to the inward life.

Sometimes our prayer life dries up. At times devotions can seem empty. We feed our inner life with God by expressing an outer life of devotion. Find ways to be of service. Look for opportunity to spread your branches, to be fruitful in life. Your prayer life will be encouraged and stimulated.

A strong relationship between the inner and outer spiritual life grows deep roots in prayer and an expanding drip line of service.

April Fools

April Fool’s Day is one holiday we never want to fall victim. As harmless as the tricks generally are, to be caught a fool is to mean someone else is more clever than you. I’m not sure why we have the innate in-ability to laugh at ourselves...it has to be practiced and accepted for most of us. Usually, if we are the butt of a joke, it makes us angry. We don’t like to think someone else knows something we don’t—even if it is as trivial as what’s under that hat.
TV shows have created entire themes around laughing at one another. America’s Funniest Home Videos is all about catching someone in the midst of an unfortunate accident, or how someone has pulled the wool over another’s eyes. Ever notice those who get the angriest are usually the proudest when the prank turns into prize money?
Foolishness is never an endeavor though it is often a liability, and sometimes closer to us than we’d like. Paul reminds us the context in which God demonstrated His greatest act of love and self-revelation, the cross. “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God….God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are…” (I Cor 1:18, 27-28).
I don’t like being considered a fool. While one of my greatest temptations is to present the Gospel in terms that are credible to society, I also find that I can’t understand the world in terms other than that defined by Christ. For Christians, Truth is defined by the cross & resurrection. Our starting point for wisdom is other than the world’s. As the Proverb says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (1:7, NRSV).
- Tob Adams