Time for a Rest!

When I got up this past Saturday morning it was a cool 43 degrees; the coolest morning yet for this fall season. I had just put a new set of tires on the old mountain bike so I decided to try them out! I had not been riding on the trails since spring, so I was somewhat out of shape. I was almost immediately rewarded for my early rising efforts by the sight of a really nice white tail buck. I stopped when I first saw him and watched him walking through the woods until he went out of sight. In spite of the numerous hills, I made it to mile three before I took my first rest stop. So far I had managed to keep the bike up on two wheels without any mishaps but I was exhausted! It was still in the 40’s and even though I was dressed in some cutoff jeans and a short sleeve shirt, I was almost totally wet with perspiration. When several joggers passed by, I was surprised that they did not ask me if I needed help! After about five minutes I seemed to revive and started up the path again. I only made it about another half a mile before I stumbled to another rest stop. This time it took about ten minutes before I felt revived and was able to continue the ride back to my house. The last one hundred yards was an eight story climb out of the canyon up to my house. By the time I reached the top I was barely able to stand. I had to take another ten minute rest to get up enough energy to wash the mud and dirt off of the bike and me. I was totally exhausted but felt really good after my workout!

Even the squirrels need a rest once in a while!

Just as our physical body gets tired and weary and needs to rest, so does our spiritual body or soul. The Bible gives many examples of things that cause our soul to become weary and tired. Sin in our lives can really take away our spiritual strength quickly. In Psalms 38 David says “neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin”. In Hebrews 12, Paul instructs us to lay aside the “weights” in our lives. These “weights” are not necessarily sins, but are things that can “weight us down” or hinder our spiritual life, such as hobbies that take up a lot of our time! Proverbs 29:9 says that “If a wise man contendeth with a foolish man, whether he rage or laugh, there is no rest”. Have you ever noticed how drained you feel after a long argument with someone? Sometimes we even get weary doing the good things, as Paul talks about in Galatians 6 and admonished us to: “not be weary in well doing”.

So we understand that our soul gets weary and tired, but how do we give our soul the rest it needs to restore its strength? The famous 23rd Psalm talks of the Shepherd “restoring” our soul. Webster defines “restore” as renewing, rebuilding, or to put back into a former state. God will restore our soul if we allow him to be our shepherd and obey his word. If we have sinned or disobeyed God’s word we need to remember 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us”. Hebrews 12 talks about “laying aside” or getting rid of the “weights” that restrict our spiritual life. Sometimes we need to rearrange our schedules so that we have time for church attendance and our personal prayer time. In Matthew 11 Jesus says “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”. We can get closer to Jesus by spending more time in prayer. Jesus can help us and make our spiritual burden easier to bare. This prayer, or communication with God, strengthens our soul, as David learned in Psalm 138 “In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul”. Finally, Isaiah chapter 40 says that “they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength”. Sometime when we are doing everything right and still get weary, we need to just wait upon the Lord and watch him work in our lives!

Patience in the Garden

The Zilker Botanical Garden of Austin, Texas is one of my favorite places to enjoy nature. The garden includes seven very different habitats displaying an array of exotic plants. The garden is always full of people enjoying time in the great outdoors. I have made many trips to the garden with my family. It is one of our favorite places for family photographs. I have also spent a lot of time at the garden, alone with my camera photographing the beautiful array of plants and animals.


I have noticed some things in the garden that most people probably never see. In the Japanese garden area there are several ponds which are inhabited by some shy creatures. The typical visitor to the park passes by the ponds and never notices these creatures. With the slightest movement or sound these creatures become motionless, blending in with their surrounding area. After the visitor has left the area, these creatures pick up where they left off and continue their busy routine.

Recently I was editing some video of these creatures when my wife looked over my shoulder and asked where I had filmed the video. She was shocked to find out that it was at Zilker Garden! The shy creatures were water snakes ranging up to three or four feet in length!

If you would like to see the snakes in the garden follow these simple instructions. The next time you visit the Japanese pond area, find a comfortable spot and sit down patiently and motionless for 5-10 minutes. You will see the pond come alive with the busy water snakes!

Patience is the key to seeing the shy water snakes at Zilker Botanical Garden. Patience is also a virtue that can help us in our Christian walk. I was surprised to find out that the word “patience” is mentioned over thirty times in the New Testament alone. So many times we get impatient with God and take things into our own hands, instead of waiting on God. We need to learn patience.

Quite often we are impatient in our prayer time, just saying a quick prayer and then running off to our next appointment or falling asleep. I challenge you to be more patient in your prayer time. Say your prayers and then wait on God, just as one has to wait patiently to see the snakes at the garden. There are times when God would like to speak to you during your prayer time, but you just say a quick prayer and leave. Try leaving 5-10 minutes after your prayer and tell God that you are waiting just to see if he would like to speak to you! You may be surprise to hear what God has to say to you!

Attacked by a Lion

     The majestic lion is the tallest cat of the feline family with a shoulder height reaching four feet. The lion can weigh up to 800 pounds, and can attain speeds of 40mph, for short bursts! They are a formidable foe without fear of any other animal in the jungle. When a lion roars, it strikes fear in the heart of every animal in range of its roar. One doesn’t realize the enormous size of the lion unless you see one up close.

     Several years ago I was standing with a group of people who were observing and photographing a large male lion. He appeared to be quite old and feeble while walking back and forth in front of us. I decided to get down on my knees to get an eye-level photograph of him as he was passing by. The lion may have been old but he was not at all feeble! He instantly reacted as I bent down, lunging at me from fifteen foot away! I didn’t have time for any reaction. The only thing that saved me was the three-inch-thick glass wall between me and the lion. The event took place at the Tokyo Zoo. In spite of the glass wall, this was the most terrifying couple of seconds in my life! Evidently the lion saw me as a wounded or sick prey. He fell back from the glass wall after his foiled "attack" and continued his pacing around his cage, but from then on kept his eyes on me... I guess waiting for me to fall again! I wanted to try to get him to attack again and get someone to film it for me, but decided that I didn't want to test the glass wall against a 600 pound lion again!

    Several lessons can be learned from this exciting event. The attack reminds us that we should always be alert for an attack from Satan and highlights that the spiritual “wall” surrounding us is critical for our survival.

    The Bible talks about the devil walking about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. My lion attack happened in less than a second, not giving me any time to react. Many of today’s spiritual attacks against a Christian also come quickly and without warning, such as a car wreck or a heart attack. We need to be ready in season or out of season, for whatever life my present us. We need to stay prayed up! We need to store up prayers in Heaven so when the time of strife or emergencies occurs, we can just stand on our past prayers.

    The spiritual “wall” is a very key part of our Christian life. In Ephesians 6:11, Paul admonishes us to “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Keeping this wall in proper order is a continual and on-going effort. In the same chapter Paul also encourages us to “pray at all times… be on the alert.” It’s our daily prayers, our fastings, and reading of the Word that helps us keep the “wall” in perfect order and protects us from the lion attacks!

Landmarks

    I received a lot of lessons from my dad while hunting in the great outdoors. When I was younger we didn't have all the modern GPS navigation aids. More than once, while in the outdoors, I found myself walking in circles and ending up where I started. This behavior causes quite a disturbing feeling. Dad taught me to navigate by using existing landmarks, pointing out various unique trees and terrain along the trail. Seeing one of these landmarks was a reassuring feeing when I was uncertain if I was still going the right direction. One particular area we hunted in was a very large and heavily wooded area, with no fences and few unique landmarks. Fortunately, this area was close to a road with an old wooden bridge. Cars traveling over this bridge made a distinctive noise. My dad taught me this simple lesson for navigating back home when lost in this area: "Just stop and wait until you hear a car going over the old wooden bridge, then turn until the bridge is on your left and walk straight forward." I sometimes had to wait a while for the next car to cross over the bridge, but the technique worked every time!

    To successfully navigate through our complex spiritual existence, we need to set up or identify some “landmarks” in our lives. Seeing these familiar landmarks assures us that we are still on the correct spiritual path. The Bible points out many of these “landmarks” that we should have established in our lives, such as daily prayer, fasting, witnessing, and regular reading of the Word. Losing sight of one of these “landmarks” helps us realize that we are straying off our spiritual path and need to take action to get back on track. One personal “landmark” that I set in my life at an early age was regarding church attendance. If I started questioning in my mind whether or not I should go to church, that was an immediate sign to me that I was backsliding and needed some immediate attention to get back on track.

    If we don’t have enough of the spiritual landmarks in our lives, we can get lost and not know what path to take to get back on track. Even when we have the landmarks, we can still stray off the path and get lost. It is usually frightening and disturbing when we come to the realization that we have a problem in our life, and we have no idea what to do to fix the problem. When this happens while driving a car, we usually stop the car, get out and ask someone where we are and how to get to our destination. When this happens on the spiritual side, we need to pause and go to someone for direction, or go directly to God for help. In Matthew 17:16 the disciples could not heal a certain man. They then came to Jesus and asked why, and Jesus told them that some challenges take much prayer and fasting to see success. Make sure you setup and follow the landmarks in your life, to keep you on the correct path!

Working Together in the Forest

   There is unbelievable array of more than 350,000 different types of living plants in our world today. They include trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, and come in shapes and sizes that are hard to imagine. A dozen flowers from the wolffia plant would just fit on the head of a pin! This small wolffia plant is 7 trillion time lighter than the massive sequoia tree!

The tallest known redwood tree reaches the height of a 37 story building at 379 feet! Bamboo is the fastest growing plant on Earth having been clocked at 48” (four foot) of growth in a 24 hour period! In areas of poor soil there are plants that derive most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming insects.

The strangler fig tree starts to grow in the crevices of other trees, grow their roots downward, and then strangle their host tree as they grow up toward the sunlight! I never cease to be amazed when I consider God’s amazing creation!

  I was walking in the woods today and saw a strange tree that I could not identify. The leaves did not seem to match the tree structure. As I got closer I realized that it was an old dead cedar tree that was covered with a grape vine and its large leaves. Later I started thinking about how the different plants in the forest work together to protect and support one another. The grape vine I saw was not strong enough to support its own weigh and depended on the large tree to provide support.

   In my walk today I also passed by an area where several tall trees had fallen, leaving a big opening in the middle of a heavily wooded area. In these heavily wooded areas the trees grow very tall trying to reach the sunlight. Some of these tall trees are very week and only stand because they are supported by the closeness of the other tall trees. When one of the tall trees dies and falls, it tends to cause several of the surround trees to fall also.

   Just as God designed the plants of the forest to work together and support each other so has he crafted the “body of Christ” to support all of its members. Just as there is a great diversity in the plant life, so are there also all types of people that make up the body of Christ. The Bible talks about the “body of Christ” in I Corinthians 12: (New Living Translation)

       12 The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So
       it is with the body of Christ….22 In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest
      and least important are actually the most necessary. 23 And the parts we regard as
      less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect
      those parts that should not be seen, 24 while the more honorable parts do not require
      this special care… 27 All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part
      of it.

   We need to realize that there are all types of people in the “body of Christ” and learn to accept those in the body who have different ministries than our own. We need to identify where we fit in the “body of Christ” and provide support for the rest of the body. When we all work together as one body there is great harmony in the forest of our lives!

Grooming the Trails

    Several miles of trails meander through the woods behind my house. I like to keep the trails clean so I can creep along them quietly and observe the wildlife. Dead branches and leaves are continually falling. I have appointed my self as keeper of the trails. I spend time raking the trails and trimming back the ever-growing braches and vines. Keeping the trails clean is a continual process, year 'round. The spring and summer require continual trimming of the new growth to keep it from taking over the trail. The fall and winter require removal of dead tree limbs and branches, after every cold front. Sometimes I spend several hours raking the trails, only to see them covered again the next day by wind-blown leaves. The occasional thunderstorm can fell complete trees and sometimes requires rerouting the trails. During one recent winter ice storm (yes, we do have the occasional ice storm in Texas!) I kept hearing what sounded like gun shots in the woods. I later realized that it was large trees and tree limbs that were cracking and breaking under the heavy weight of the ice. After the several-days-long ice storm, the woods resembled a war zone with dozens of fallen trees and limbs. It took several hours of work to get the trails back to normal!

    I have noticed that within several months, the woods can completely take over a trail. Just today I took an old trail that I had not used in three or four months. I was surprised to see that the trail was almost indistinguishable from the surrounding woods. Leaves and branches almost totally covered the trail and grass and weeds were starting to grow along the trail.

   Guarding and keeping our soul is very similar to the effort it takes to keep the trails clean and groomed. Our souls require regular and constant attention. If we do not regularly cleanse our souls, sin has a way of quickly appearing and taking up residence. Sometimes sin crashes down on us like a tree falling during a sudden, violent thunderstorm, doing its damage quickly. These big sins are obvious and leave no doubt that we need take action to get rid of them. Other times, sin slowly creeps in like the tiny weeds that appear in the trail. At first these sins are small and almost unnoticeable. We may see issues in our lives that appear so small and insignificant. Given time, even these seemingly insignificant issues can grow to be major thorns in our lives, if we do not address them. Sometimes we only cut back the "weeds" in our lives and soon they grow right back as they were. When we see these little weeds in our lives, we need to quickly pull them up, roots and all. In life sometimes we just address the symptoms of a problem, but what we really need to do is get to the “root” of the problem and eliminate it. Make sure you keep you soul clean and groomed and you will enjoy many happy days in your life!