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Wednesday, September 26, 2018

LIFE ISN'T A GREENHOUSE


09.26.18

Though I am not an expert in greenhouses, I think I understand how they generally function. The purpose of a greenhouse is to create the ideal conditions for growth, regardless of the season outside the greenhouse. Heat and humidity are controlled to produce the ideal environment for growing things.
Maybe you’ve noticed that life doesn’t always provide us with what would be considered ideal conditions. There is often something or someone in our life contributing to a less than ideal environment for our growth and thriving.
What we do when we face these less than ideal conditions will determine, to a great degree, whether will thrive in life.
The dangerous and deceptive thing is that we often think we know what the conditions should be in our life. We think we know what would work for our best benefit. So, we take over management of our ‘greenhouse’ [life] and we look to acquire what we think we need to create the ideal conditions. Our prayers often become instructions for God, so He will know what to do; like He needs our wisdom, or our world may fall apart. 😊
In life I have been humbled many times. That which I thought was the ‘worst,’ God worked for His best in my life. That which I thought would be ‘best’ for my life, ended up not being helpful and, at times, even a hindrance to God’s purposes.
The stages of a seed provide a powerful life lesson. Before a seed ever sprouts [germinates] it is placed in the ground and “dies”.
In John 12:24 we find these words of Jesus: “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” (NIV) 
Buried, surround by soil and shrouded by darkness, the seed has all the appearances of something that has died. Not so. It is the first stage in the new life that will sprout from the seed. You may be in a ‘dark place’ right now and feel like you’ve been ‘buried’ by life. Remember, God has placed His seed (His precepts and promises) in you to grow, so give it time.
What is so shocking about what Jesus is saying, is that very few of us share His view of death. It is hard for us to comprehend the stages of a seed, where the process of life begins with the dying of the seed.
Tomatoes are an item that are often grown in a greenhouse. If it were winter, we could probably find a greenhouse tomato in the produce section of the grocery store. The funny thing about tomatoes grown in a greenhouse is they, as you would expect, have many of the features of a tomato (color, shape, size, etc.). But if you are given the choice between eating a greenhouse tomato or one grown in the ground, there is no comparison. One can immediately tell the difference in flavor, texture, and juiciness. Nothing beats a sun-ripened tomato!
As I see it, we each face a choice: Will we try to live in a greenhouse (a place where we control all the conditions) OR are we willing to ‘die’ in the ground (so we can live)?

In my next post I want to explore topics, such as: obedience, submission, and control, specifically, in the context of when conditions of our life are less than ideal.

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