The crockpot of my soul

sometimes things just need time to sit....

and simmer and marinate.

life is like that.

"the crockpot of our soul" as our Pastor put it this morning.

(the following are some notes I took, mixed in with my thoughts & my heart).

This morning we learned about the process of a seed dying....dying so that it can bring forth fruit. And it wasn't a metaphor for our little church either, it had nothing to do with our dwindling congregation or how things look right now. It did, however, have everything to do with our souls.

It was a beautiful reminder, hearing the process a seed goes through.

When placed in the ground, did you know a seed has a protective covering on it?
A membrane that keeps it safe until the temperature is just right for it to come out.

It then sheds this protective "baggie" of sorts and begins to receive moisture into itself.
Thus it begins its journey~down to ROOT and up to SPROUT.

I want to be like that seed.....not just going down into the deep things of God, but at the same time going up and sprouting some signs of fruit and harvest. I think too often it's one or the other, there's a lot of "deep" people out there with little to no fruit in their everyday lives.
I don't want to be fruitless. I don't want to die a "single seed." "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, in remains only a single seed. BUT, if it dies, it produces many seeds." John 12:24. There is fruit in spiritual death.

His hand of planting in our life produces this type of death. A beautiful death, there is such a thing you know, but it's not pretty while you're in it by any means. And wouldn't it be nice to choose the way we get to die? I'm not talking about physical death here, I'm talking about a dying to self, a dying to my own desires and ideals and ways. Sometimes we see those around us dying a long & slow death while for others it seems so quick and automatic. I don't get that.

So, if today it feels like you're dying,
don't run from it because you probably are.
And it's not such a bad thing.

If you dare, lets ask God what portion/area of our life needs to die?
Let's ask for the thumb of God to take us, His seed and push us down deep into the soil of His presence. Only there will we find NEW life and FRUITFUL life.

There's freedom in death.

"While you are proclaiming peace with your lips,
be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.

~St. Francis of Assisi~