Author: marettej

I have a verse for each day when I go into my prayer time. I usually have the prayer book for about 6 months before I start another. Matthew 6:32-33 has been Thursday’s verse for a long time. I am ready to move on. For if my Heavenly Father knows that I need all these things why isn’t he doing something about it? I am trying to seek his kingdom and his righteousness and I am waiting for all these things to be added: there just seems to be a hang up somewhere. The hang up is in one word that is defined by Webster’s and Marette and is different than the definition on God’s mind. The word, need you even ask, is the word NEED.

Up to verse 32 Jesus was reminding those who were listening what was important in life. It’s not what’s on the table but who is sitting with you, and it’s not what you are wearing but that you are clothed. We fuss about what we think we need to look like, aspire to and represent to others and God is just saying, love me and love others and I will take care of the needs you have.

Meanwhile back at the farm, I miss the flowers God has splashed all over the garden because I have mud everywhere and dirt piles. I have no power in the front room yet but I miss the incredible view through those huge windows that have given me a front row seat watching the corn sprout, grow, go way beyond knew high by the Fourth of July and now is tasseled and producing ears of corn. That simple thing, a need God supplies for us to make a living, is so complicated I can’t even explain it without a chemistry degree and yet God just shows me my needs growing straight up strong and tall and I, I miss it because my wants are so confused with my needs.

I want this. I want that. My temporal heart sees the want. God is trying to get my eternal heart to see the need. The only need I have is quite well described in Psalm 19. “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thee sight O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.” Lest I think the things Jesus mentioned one the chapters preceding Matthew 6 are simply casually mentioned, I need to pray like Jesus taught is. I need to grasp being a light not just be a beautiful light fixture. I need to hold with my heart the loving my neighbor moments in life and meditate on how to love them not worry about how far down the street a neighbor actually lives before they quit being my neighbor. I need to fast to refocus my attention, I need to fill storage lockers in heaven not here below and I need to forgive! I really need to forgive. When I pull off living through the needs Jesus brings up and not the wants I see, I will watch him “and all these thing shall be added unto you” pile on my plate. And yet I tend to look at the plate sitting on the shelf and wonder when it’s time to eat?

When we bought the cabin 14 years ago I had this idea of planting flowers. I hadn’t thought through that I would not be around to water them or protect them from the natural environment such as bunnies and deer but I wanted color and beauty. The iris I planted didn’t make it a year. They were all eaten. The hosta made it slightly longer but by the end of the second year I had nothing in my yard. And then we noticed random purple iris showing up in the marsh. Little bits of color began showing up across the 6 acres we call home away from home. Last night I walked along the waters edge and saw purple iris are as far as eye can see. I meant to have one plant. The deer ate the plants and deposited the seeds when they, well pooped! So years later now we have flowers all through the meadow, the marsh and along the lake front. It’s prettier than I would have imagined.

God does that. I have an idea- God has a plan. I have a thought-God uses it to create a vision. My lilies are growing along side the house where I tucked them in an effort to have flowers. God sent the purple iris all over the property just to remind me who he is and what he created is far beyond my comprehension. So I look at the lilies and see God. Maybe that was his plan all along….

I know I am priviledged. I know I am special. When I begin to have a pity party over what has been handed me the past few years, I get frustrated and slightly angry and then I go to the cabin. God seems to have given us that place not just to bless others but to be a calm in the world that petrifies our hearts. I can lie on a hammock and watch the lake. I can paddle aimlessly around on the paddle boat and fish; rather catch and release! I can sleep under the vaulted ceiling with the rain keeping a beautiful tempo on the roof. I can make couscous and salmon and no one says, “yuck”. I can eat popcorn and drink diet coke and feel as if the world is in sync. And then there was this weekend. Perhaps because of all that’s happened with Covid, it was just different.

I love Black bear. My father raised them. My younger brother, who I was going to enjoy cabin time with, grew up with the babies drinking out of a bottle and running around in our home. I just about got a new hood ornament, and probably a new car! A black bear ran out in front of the truck and trailer in front of me and not sure why they didn’t hit him and not sure why I missed also. He lumbered up the hill as brakes were causing cars to create patterns not normally used on the road. He was oblivious to the world around him. He was oblivious to the fact he almost caused a huge wreck on Wisconsin 35 south of Frederic. He lumbered off, and he was fairly big for a black bear, without a care in the world. I was a bit jealous: not of the little incident but that he worried not about anything.

I drove back to the cabin Sunday after a short jaunt to town and had to slow for a deer and fawn. She stood tall, smelling and taking in the world around her as the world sped by with black tires, exhaust and music blaring. The fawn stood by her side not a care in the world. They both looked at me as if to say, “hi, how is your day going?” It made me smile from the bottom of my heart.

I sat in the sun after a good nap, simply enjoying the beauty of the lake when a dragon fly landed on my leg. At first, I brushed it off. Then another one came and I let it just sit on my knee. Not a care in the world could stop this beautiful creature. It flew around, stopped again and as it sat on my knee I heard the hummingbird drinking out of the feeder.

Jesus reminded us that we are God’s creations. He compared us to the grass in the field, the beautiful wildflowers. The Psalms declare the handiwork of God by his creation. I sat and marveled at how simple the world is when you look at the beauty of God. How complex the world becomes when we look at ourselves. The flowers that I left to bloom when I mowed, were now lifting their red and yellow flowers to the sky. It was almost as if they were praising their creator with arms lifted high. When I look at the flower and it’s intricate design, I see God. When I look at the lake and the clouds, I see God. Then, I check on Facebook or the news and see what man has done.

I think I will go back to watching God and listen to the frogs. There is something about creation that is soothing and renewing. “Be still and know that I am God” doesn’t really apply to nature, as his presence in croaking, chirping, and whatever you call the Loon call. And yet, it’s beautiful and it’s a gentle reminder that God is. And I am so thankful I have a place I can be reminded. Job 12:7-9 ⁷“But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; ⁸or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. ⁹Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this?” Oh, and I forgot to tell you about the fish, and the whooping crane , loons, Bald eagle that eats the loon eggs, black squirrel, and the beaver.

I sit here in the silence. It’s silence of one hears silence. If I listen I hear birds, geese, frogs, kids laughing on the lake and water. I sit here looking at life. I see a paddle board with two people on it moving slowly across the lake, two boys in a paddle boat pulling in crappies, I see the canoes flipped upside down, the birds flirting to and fro and the tree where the beaver is chewing. I also see John 15. That’s where the Bible is open to. It’s the abiding chapter. The sit on the patio in an Adirondack chair and think about what God means by resting chapter. It’s the chapter that reminds us without roots delivering the nutrients to the tree limbs the leaves don’t unfold and grow. And after all that abiding talk and resting and letting God feed your heart and grow your soul he throws verse 12 in. Love as I have loved you. It would not be so bad if John has used a different example. But Jesus said love like he loves. How about I love like Sam, or Ellen or Jared? They have faults like me and tire out too. How about giving me a comparison to love that makes me feel like I have the chance of doing ok. No, I get the Jesus loving example. Sometimes it makes me hurt just thinking about it. Love hurts isn’t just some lyrics in an old rock song. For those of you who never heard of the song or the Everly Brothers, google it! Living like Jesus said and loving people just hurts sometimes. Which is why we need to be connected to the vine! The Vine/Jesus has not only the ability to keep our focus and our loveometer going but somehow Jesus has a way of drying tears without sopping the handkerchiefs. The key verse is actually before he talks about the loving people in verse 11. So your joy May be full! Fill up your joy tank and loving comes easier. I am not sure I believe that 100% but I am trying.

I didn’t grow up with T.V.. We didn’t have one. We did have a radio however. Radio was our best friend.  What I have discovered in these later years of my life, one of my comforts is listening to baseball on the radio. It takes me back to a very good time in my memories. I have Sirius X-M radio in my car and I do travel a-lot. If I am on the road and I need something to listen to, I find myself on the sports channels and listening to baseball. Doesn’t need to be the Minnesota Twins, it just needs to be baseball.

During this interesting time we are in, I haven’t missed a lot of things that others are challenged by. I have however, desperately missed listening to spring training and the opening of baseball.  For some reason I really connect with sports. I am too old to play much anymore, my mind is willing but the body can’t follow through, but if I need to chill out, it’s a football game or baseball and I have been known to even watch soccer.

James talks about sports.  In Verse 22 of chapter 1, it’s right there in black and white.

^“22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³ Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵ But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.”  

So let me translate for you- “do not merely just listen to the coach, read the playbook and think you are a player.  You have to run the plays. For if you simply read the playbook and think you are a player, you are like the person who puts on the uniform, gets the black line under your eyes and grabs the helmet but never leaves the locker room. You can’t call yourself a player and you won’t know the game. Only those who actually dress up, know the playbook and run onto the field when the coach nods his head can be considered a player. Only those players have a chance of scoring and winning”

Perhaps that’s a bit far fetched in my attempt to reword James 1, but it’s true. We have many people thinking they are something they are not. I don’t read a lot for pleasure. Some do. During this time many have cleared their bookshelves, gotten books online and borrowed from others. Just reading about France doesn’t make you a frenchman. Just reading about how to cook doesn’t make you a cook. You have to engage and discover. Being a Christian is so much more than reading the Bible. It’s the experience of letting the Holy Spirit move you onto the playing field of life and rub shoulders with people. It’s messy, it’s tiresome, you will get hurt and you will get dirty. But only when you be Jesus, do what Jesus would have done, can you consider yourself a disciple of Jesus. That’s a Christian- being Christ like. So grab the playbook and find what position you play and get in the game!