What Happens in the Heat

The weather forecast after we arrived home from a trip to the northwest was not encouraging. For the last two weeks, we'd enjoyed highs in the 80's, and we came home to a boiler!!

When I got home that evening, I walked the yard to survey our plants. We had been gone awhile and the heat had already been intense. The damage wasn't too bad. A ruby red grapefruit had clearly not gotten water and consequently dropped about half of its leaves. A thirsty crepe myrtle had all of its leaves hanging down. The biggest loss was a couple one-year old privet starts. They were cooked.

As I soaked all the most thirsty plants with water, I saw a parallel to our lives as Christians. In the Christian life, we have 'growing' days, 'dormant' days and 'hot' days. And this is a HOT time!

When the water is cut off for awhile and the heat rises, we begin to suffer. Leafs dip, then drop. Branches sometimes die. You are no longer as spiritually healthy as you once were, and you feel it. Even if you have a steady supply of spiritual nourishment, you are not invincible. But you are more resilient!

The deeper the roots, the less leaf drop you experience in the heat. The more nourishment, the hotter you can handle. But severe heat hurts. Every time. The path back to health comes through renewed nourishment and - sometimes - strategic pruning.

This reality is being lived out in my yard... and I see it in our church as well. Just as my plants are struggling to make it through the extreme heat, so a number of people in the church are also.

As you go to church this Sunday, could I ask you to step into the role of the gardener? Would you wander the yard/patio and look to see who's there that needs some extra nourishment/encouragement? God calls us to care for one another, giving particular attention to the weak and discouraged.

"Encourage one another and build up one another." (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
"Encourage the fainthearted, help the weak" (1 Thessalonians 5:14)