Times of Refreshing

Spent a couple of hours in my overgrown garden tearing back dead daffodil leaves and opening up the roses to the sun and fresh air. All kinds of snails lurking in the shadows but now exposed and vulnerable...

There’s been a lot of rain apparently while I’ve been away, which has encouraged growth spurts mostly amongst the weeds. I’m just back from a drought-area, where lawns are turning brown and even the weeds are dying.

Water. Such a basic resource which we in the cooler and moister climes deride and take for granted. But all around me is verdant, green farmland, bursting with life. Even if some of it is monopods, still ...

Tomorrow is Pentecost. Times of refreshing from our God. Good and plentiful soft rains to foster growth in my spirit. Alert to the possibility of weeds sprouting as well. So grateful that God is the gardener. 

Excited to be heading to the Cherish conference in Leeds this week. Looking forward to the refreshment of losing myself in worship and praise.

Calcification

We visited Pamukkale in Turkey several years ago. 

It is a natural wonder, where calciferous water bubbles up from the ground, depositing hard, white rock-like florets that tumble in a series of pools down a hillside. They are visible across the valley in the ruin of a Biblical city called Laodicea, which we also visited. Pamukkale adjoins a Roman city called Hierapolis, also mentioned in the Bible. A place where the early church took root and grew, encouraged by one of Jesus’ disciples, Philip, and his four daughters.

In Roman times people enjoyed the spa-qualities of the warm, calciferous water. When we went, we plunged into the modern-day spa-waters and found ourselves treading on the ruins of Roman statues, columns, and cobblestones, for this was once a city street. It was amazing, incongruous, weird.

Jesus gave words to John, in Revelation, to be written in a letter to the church in Laodicea. In the letter Jesus complained that the church in that place had lost its first love for him and was now lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, unpalatable and only worth spitting out. In actual fact, that was how the ground water tasted in Laodicea; it was known to be bitter and lukewarm, horrible to the taste.

So what brought all that to mind this morning? 

I’ve been thinking about how easy it is to harden our hearts. That made me think of the water bubbling up in Pamukkale, leaving beautiful snow-white deposits on the hillside but giving no refreshing pleasure in that hot country. 

When our hearts are hard, our words might sound beautiful but without compassion and understanding, they carry no life or refreshment.

Wise words satisfy like a good meal, Solomon wrote in his proverbs. I pray that today my heart might be soft and my words might be wise, that they would satisfy like a good meal and bring refreshment to any readers.

God bless you.