 Everyone knows: All grapefruit is ugly. If you stop at the skin, grapefruit is a puckered, warty, mustard-colored sponge blob.
But last week I sliced it open and found out that some grapefruit is also ugly on the inside. This particular grapefruit was a disproportionate amount of white, bitter flesh and a minuscule amount of fruit – that appeared dry. Staring at it, I resigned myself to eating it, an ugly, dry, shrunken masquerade of a grapefruit. And then I tasted it. Wow! What flavor, sweet and tangy, not bitter. How often, I thought, do we look at the situations of life and stop at the obvious. God, that’s hard and ugly. I don’t want it. Illness. Death. Loss of a job. Strife in a relationship. We regularly just resign ourselves to our circumstances. We look to God, hands on hips and say: Just get me through this until you have something good to give me. Cure this sickness. Make the pain go away. Provide a better job, with more money. And most of us stop there. But it’s only when we stop and taste and see that the Lord is good do we experience the sweetness of what He desires for us in those ugly seasons of life. Comfort by His Spirit. Wisdom through our struggles. Healing in our pain. Hope by the proving of His promises. Even in the terrible parts of life, our God is good. He knows the tearing of a parent’s heart. The crushing of a world scarred by sin. The confusion of being betrayed. He understands suffering and still He works through it to bring good for His children. Think about that next time you see a grapefruit. Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? -- Luke 14:34 Look out across Utah's Salt Flats -- plenty of salt, but what good does it do? Salt that just stays on the flats can't season my cake or your casserole. As long as the salt is all in one spot, it can't preserve your pickles or my olives. It can't do what it is supposed to do because that salt is somewhere it can't be used. If we are the salt, are we where God can use us? Are we spiritually maturing so He can teach through us? Or are we stuck in a sin that keeps us from fulfilling our purpose? Are we seeking Him so we can serve in the strength He provides? Or are we grinding it out in our own effort and ignoring the One Who makes us able? Are we living out the faith of Jesus Christ for our neighbors? Our co-workers? Or are we pretending at church and hiding in the world? We are the salt. Together, we fulfill our purpose when each of us is fulfilling God's calling as individuals to be salt. And salt is good.  The Salt Flats may be unable to absorb water, but the water still comes. Every season, the rains descend and snows come trying to bring life back to that desolate wilderness. In some areas, it floods from the sheer amount of life-giving water. And yet...nothing grows. Nothing. In many ways our country reminds me of Utah’s Salt Flats. It’s drowning in spiritual water and yet it’s bone dry. Bibles galore. Solid Christian teaching available in droves online. Our presses kick out thousands of solid Christian books. Churches, now sometimes vacant, on every street corner. We are drowning, and yet we are bone dry, a desert under the floods. Many will argue how it happened – but few argue did not occur. The Salt Flats need a miracle. To be fruitful, they would need to be fundamentally changed from the inside out. Our country needs a miracle and to be fundamentally changed from the heart-side out. And just as we cannot expect orchards to grow on the Salt Flats, we cannot expect non-Christians to believe or act like Christ followers. This why the solution is not policies or judges or politicians. Nor is in resignation, apathy, or isolation. The solution is Christ – the Miracle Worker. So keep asking Him for a miracle. Keep pouring on the Water. All mankind was once a salt flat – you and me included -- but God is able to transform a salt flat into a garden.   A barren beauty. The Salt Flats in western Utah are fascinating. Miles of white, smooth ground, unbroken by rock or tree or bush (just occasional manmade structure – like a sea monster of tires painted green). One may be tempted to think, “This plain clearly gets no water and that causes it’s beautiful baldness.” But the truth is the Salt Flats get a fair amount of water (for the desert).
So why are the Salt Flats barren? The soil is bad. It cannot absorb water. Rain and snow melt just puddle on the surface and never penetrate that hard, depleted crust. Regardless of the amount of water, the soil is not prepared to receive water or seed or nutrients. It cannot do what it is meant to do. And as I peered out over the sad, dry reaches of those Salt Flats, I wondered: What parts of my life (or heart) have the potential to bear fruit for Christ, but are barren because my soil is unprepared to receive the Living Water of Christ? Has unforgiveness hardened some areas? Maybe pride is sealing up other parts? Ungodly entertainment? Goals apart from God? Poor stewardship? Personal demands or expectations? “Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till He comes and rains righteousness on you.” – Hosea 10:12 I met someone who needed a Bible this week. I had one...but it was embossed. It was signed by a famous person. It was a memento from a mission’s trip. It had my notes in it for the Bible study I planned to write... And I didn’t want to give it up. I had other Bibles at home. I could have transcribed my notes. I had other souvenirs. Who cares if a celebrity had signed it? That’s not what a Bible is for. A Bible is for winning souls. But I didn’t want to give it up. Afresh, I was reminded of the physical things we can’t let go of. My favorite dress, coat, pen. Our expensive car, career, or abode. Often, we hold on to these things so tightly because we do not recognize the true purpose of my car – is to allow me to serve Christ. The true design for our money is to bring others the gospel of Jesus Christ. The true reason God gave us X, Y, or Z is to glorify Himself. Our furniture...it’s God. Our family...God’s. Our influence, our stuff, our everything...we have it for God’s glory. Mine doesn’t exist – it’s all God’s and only God’s. When we cling to “our” things with a vice grip, we not only defeat it’s true purpose but our own as well. We are created to glorify the Lord our Creator, and everything we own is to help us do this!  Thank you again to the members of the Christian Classic Car Club who showed their cars in our community outreach car show last year! |
The AuthorCome with me as we grow in fellowship with each other and our Savior to whom belongs the Amazing Escape from sin and death and the Amazing Journey into glorious life. Archives
October 2024
Categories |
RSS Feed