The Media in Panama City

Reading the Panama City paper during these past few days since the shooting has left my brow scrunched up and puzzled. What a culture here!

(If you are reading this and don't know what shooting I am referring to, there was a gunman at the Bay County school board meeting last week. He tried to kill 7 men who sat at the dais in point blank range, shooting 12 or 18 times, yet he missed.)

Can you imagine the front page story of your newspaper covering a praise and worship meeting? Well, yesterday's News Herald did just that. The front page story covered a praise and worship service that was attended by hundreds at the Civic Center.

Can you imagine EVERY one of your school board members attending this praise and worship meeting at the civic center and giving all the glory to the Lord?

Can you imagine the editor of the paper publishing his editorial of the week with the title, "Heroic Actions Come from Person's Faith"? Can you imagine the content of that editorial was that in such a scary and ultimately miraculous event, God has become the focus of all and is constantly being praised by those involved and in turn by the community.

Wow. How refreshing! As a Christian, I am more often than not disturbed by the media, typically reading text that belittles my beliefs as fairy tales. How lovely to see a newspaper that declares the truth, "JESUS SAVES!"

May my Lord, Jesus Christ, bless and SAVE you, today, all this Christmas season, and every day of you life.

Do You Know Why I Farm?

Today I have okra stew dribbling down my chin and I smile.  I smile because I am so proud that so much of what is on my chin came from my own farm.

Did you know that farming is hard?  Believe me, it is.  I have been trying to raise our own food for about 10 years or so now and I am not self-sustaining by a long shot.  Don’t think I ever will be.  But when you can make okra stew and the okra, hot peppers, sweet peppers, corn and pork sausage all came from your own land, you have a great feeling of satisfaction and pride.

Do you know why I farm?  Those of you who haven’t seen me since college or even high school probably think it’s odd that I farm.  A girl who grew up beach side, laying in the sun and going to the beach doesn’t evoke thoughts of farming.  A college kid that only drank beer, thought about politics and scraped her way through school doesn’t make you think of a farming lady.  But, my life changed before I knew it and now I farm.

I suppose I started when Theo and I got together.  Our house sits on about 4.5 acres so it was natural to stock the ponds with fish and to keep some chickens at first.  Then came the cows, pigs and goats.  And now I garden, butcher my own chickens and turkeys, and even try to spin wool.  But, what really happened along the way was that God hit me upside the head really, really hard.

You see, while I might have said I was a Christian early in life, I wasn’t really.  But 12 years ago I took my first really serious bible study class.  In it we read the bible pretty much from beginning to end ---- and I was hooked!  Amazed!  Surprised and certainly enlightened. 

Before that class, I really thought that the Bible was a bunch of fairy tales and/or myths.  It couldn’t possibly be true, could it?  And the fact that I believed that there was a guy named Jesus back in history was just safe and convenient.  You see, if you say you believe in Jesus, then you go to heaven, so if he doesn’t exist, no real loss there --- you just said something that wasn’t true.  No big deal.  But, if you don’t believe and it is true, big mistake!!!  Down to the eternal fires.   So I said I “believed”, but in fact I really doubted and didn’t give much thought to the Christian life.

But, when I started REALLY studying the Bible, that is, getting down and dirty, comparing story after story and comparing book after book, something funny happened.  I could see that it was impossible for it not to be true!  I could see that the “big book” was a bunch of individual books that had been written by dozens of authors at different times in our history, yet it all fit together like a glove.  A beautiful tapestry!  Amazing!

So, now I farm.  What’s the connection?  Well, it would take a lot to explain all the details but I just think I am supposed to do it.  I feel like raising my own food is part of God’s plan for me.  I farm because I see God’s hand in my life.  He put me here in a place where I can farm.   And he’s given me a curious mind that asks, “What does he mean about all those farming analogies in the Bible?  Daily bread?  Goats versus sheep?  Vineyards?  So why not?  ” 

So even though in today’s modern world it’s easier and cheaper to buy food from the store, I farm just so I can have a better understanding of what God says about it.

Let me give you an example: Why did he say for us not to eat pigs in those Old Testament rules?  I don’t know.  But, after raising them myself I have a whole new understanding of “unclean” animals.  Pigs’ poop STINKS!!!!  Wow!  It’s the very, very worst!  And when you have free range pigs that love you very much and in their “wanting to be close to you” they decide to plop their poop only outside the back door, you really have an “unclean” situation.  In stark contrast, none of your ruminants’ poop smells at all (goats, sheep, cows, deer) and God said you could eat them because they were “clean”.   So while we do eat pork (and all kinds of meat) in our family, we do think we have a better understanding why the old law said not to. 

Another example:  Why did God say back in Genesis that we’d have to work hard for our food (by the sweat of our brow)?  Because gardening is hard!    It’s a real bummer to find worms eating your cucumbers and squash, raccoons digging up the garlic and squirrels taking one bite out of huge, green tomatoes and throwing them on the ground!  Weeds are prolific and pulling them is sweaty businesses.  And I could go on and on.  Gardening is hard work!  But, when you are able to eat the fruits of your labor, it’s very satisfying and sweet.  And since I garden organically, I am able to feed my family and myself food that I couldn’t afford to buy in the store  ---- and in fact couldn’t buy since I pick it and eat it immediately.  Real local farming!

So, as the okra stew drips down my chin, I smile and thank God for the bounty of my garden and his blessed word.  Thank you, Lord, for helping me to know you better.  Thank you for opening my eyes to the bible and giving me the chance to really study it.  Thank for you for letting me get so excited about your story that I garden and farm. 

And thank you, Jesus, as the okra stew drips down my chin and I smile in delight.

Raising Grapes

Last week, one of our pastors, Jacob Collins, spoke a bit about John 15, you know where Jesus says that he's the vine, we're the branches and God's the gardener.  Jacob had been wondering, "what's the purpose of the vine?" and  he decided that that since a gardener grows grapes to enjoy them, we're simply grown for God's pleasure as well.

Sure I agree with that and there are plenty of other scriptures that say that directly.  But, being an avid gardener it got me thinking about the new pole beans I was just admiring in my own yard and ruminating about lots of other details in the raising grapes process.   (My grape vines aren't flowering but my pole beans sure are.)  That made me realize that there's a whole lot that happens before God gets his pleasure.

Ask yourself, before the fruit, what happened to that vine?  Well, first there was lots of soil preparation, nutrients added, weeds eliminated, vine planting and then watering.  In our lives, how does that translate?  Isn't it our history?  Isn't it our life story?  Don't you see how God has prepared and set up your own life just to get you in the place you are today?  I've got watermelon vines growing in one of my boxes now.  Each day I look at them and redirect their path so that they will be working their way to the trellis that I have for them to climb up.  Don't you see how God's redirected your path as you have grown?  Are you letting your self be guided up the trellis?

But then, right before the fruit, what does the vine do?  FLOWER!  Isn't that just beautiful?  I get so excited when my plants are flowering as I am already anticipating the food.    And I study the flowers.  Aren't those tomato flowers just so sunny and cheery?  And the bean flowers?  I think they are so lovely and delicate.  Isn't it lovely how they curl around and almost look like tiny orchid flowers?  So lovely.  There is a huge smile on my face and I am sure there is more bounce in my step as I see the flowers throughout my garden.

Don't you just know that's the way it is for God, too?  He looks at us flowering and he must be so excited!  I bet he just smiles and jumps up and down just like I do.  But, he doesn't stop there.  He also sends in the bees, lady bugs and earthworms.  Raising grapes doesn't just happen but requires the efforts of many other active participants.

Who are our bees?  Who visits our flowers and makes sure they are pollinated?  Isn't it those of us who study God's Word passing on our enthusiasm and outright need for this lifeblood?

What about our lady bugs?  Who scours up and down the vine eating up all the predatory aphids?   Wouldn't that be those of us on our knees begging the Lord for protection?    How about our angels placed both on our left and right, actively knocking Satan's arrows out of the way.

What about our earthworms?  Who travels in our deep recesses making sure our soil is healthy, aerated and able to pass on it's nutrients to the plant?  I wonder if that's the Holy Spirit, talking to us, encouraging us, and leading us on?