Casting and Cares

I shared this with a ladies' group and thought perhaps you might like it, also.  As summer teases us, it's a good time to think about good times.  

Today’s Bible verse calls up a very vivid memory for me.

I can see my 10-year-old self on the banks of Jackson Park lagoon. I’m leaning against a tree and watching my grandpa as he digs around the tackle box.

“You want to make sure you have the right lure and the right sinkers.” He is talking more to himself than me, but I’m trying to really listen. I’d rather be swimming. But the pool is unexpectedly closed and I said I would fish with him instead.

Truth be told, I never really liked the whole process of fishing. First of all, there is the hook which can get caught in your finger – which I experienced at a much younger age. Then, there is the catching of the smelly fish which … smell. Finally, there is the cleaning of the smelly fish which is even smellier. I didn’t mind eating them, however, but the rest of the process was not my favorite.

Being with my grandpa, however, was always a treasure. He was 6’2” of stories, patience, and love. We spent countless hours walking around this lagoon from my earliest childhood.

And so I succumbed on this summer day to fish with him. Little did I know this would be one of the last opportunities for such a magical day.

“You remember how to put the sinkers on? You do that part and I’ll get the hook set on the other pole.”

I did remember. You had to have them in the right place and then clinch them together or you couldn’t properly cast the line. It wouldn’t go far enough out and it wouldn’t sink far enough down. Casting was a very important step in fishing.

I clinched the sinkers with the pinchers and carefully re-wound the line on my pole and set it down. I reached over to Grandpa’s pole and set his sinkers, also.

“Well, looky there. You got that perfect. Thanks.” The sun behind him was shaded by the ever-present hat cocked jauntily on his head. I beamed in his approval. Even now, almost 50 years later, I can feel his love wrap around me like a blanket.

“Ready to cast?”

Here’s the thing about casting. You have to do it. Willfully, purposefully, and confidently. This is not a namby-pamby action. You have to cast with strength or your hook will hook the tree above you, the grass beside you, yourself. I speak from experience.

This time, I cast perfectly. I absolutely flipped my wrist, let loose the reel, and watched the hook and line soar out over the pond.

I don’t remember catching anything that day except a sunburn. But I remember that cast. I’m sure it’s the best cast I ever casted. I’m also sure I have never fished again.

I know what you’re thinking. What verse are you talking about? Being fishers of men? Being called like John and Andrew? Where is she going?

Actually, here is the verse that brought that lovely memory:

1 Peter 5:7 (KJV) Cast all your cares on Him, for he careth for you.

Now you understand the casting. Picture yourself with confidence, strength, and determination literally casting your cares to Jesus as if He is standing beside you like my Grandpa. Tall, strong, capable just waiting to help you, waiting to tell you how proud He is of you.

If you can’t quite picture that, let’s read it in The Passion Translation:

1 Peter 5:7 (TPT) Pour out all your worries and stress upon Him and leave them there, for he always tenderly cares for you.

In our culture of independence, especially for “modern” women, it’s hard to be vulnerable enough to ask for help. But do it. Just try it. Find yourself a place to pray and pour out the whole entire set of problems. Big and small. He has time to listen. Your problems are not a bother to Him because they are too small. He never said that He only cares about big problems. In fact, cancer that needs to be healed has the same capacity for a miracle as the stretched budget and the healing in your heart over a friend who just betrayed you and the situation at home or work that you can’t seem to solve. If it’s your concern, He cares about it. Talk to Him.

What have you got to lose?

It might just be that one prayer time, that one specific connection to Jesus will live on in your memory like a sunny day at a lagoon that the thought of makes you feel heard, cared for, and loved.

A Man and a Handful of Seeds

The writer's contest has come to a very pleasant conclusion.  And now begins the posting of the blogs!

First up - A Man and a Handful of Seeds by Sam Al-Saadi.

Enjoy!

“A Man and a Handful of Seeds”

There was a man who was given a handful of seeds. The man brought the seeds home and placed them on his kitchen table. He began to talk to the seeds and tell them it was time for them to grow. He explained to the seeds the process of growth and encouraged them to do what they were meant to do. As the days went by and the seeds remained on the man’s table, the man became frustrated. Why would the seeds not respond to his good teaching and encouragement? He knew the things he was telling them were right. He could not understand the seeds’ refusal to respond. Are not seeds supposed to grow, the man asked himself? I must have been given bad seeds, he thought to himself. In his frustration he became sterner and explained to the seeds that it is was their duty to grow and he told them that they were not living to their potential. For many weeks and months the man continued to teach, encourage, prod, and pray because he knew in his heart that the seeds were meant to grow.

One day a friend of the man came to the man’s home. As the man and his friend were enjoying a conversation, the man’s friend noticed the handful of seeds on the man’s table and asked the man about the seeds. The man told his friend how he was given the seeds and he told his friend everything he had done to make them grow. The friend smiled at the man and spent the rest of the afternoon explaining many things.
The very next day the man went out and found the most fertile soil that he could find. He did just as his friend had said and he brought home both fertilizer and peat to mix with the soil. He found a spot close to a window and placed large pots, which he filled with the most fertile soil, peat, and fertilizer. The sun was shining in the window, bright and clear, as the man placed the seeds in the pots at just the depth that his friend had told him. He watered the soil well and as the days passed he kept the soil watered with just the right amount of water. Two of the seeds never grew but the others began to grow. The man continued to do exactly as his friend had told him and he made sure to water the pots with just the right amount of water; he made sure to keep the room warm, he made sure to feed the seeds with fertilizer, and he made sure that the sun could shine brightly on the pots. The seeds had become plants and the plants continued to grow as the man did all that his friend had said. The plants did not all grow the same, but they all grew. Most of the seeds became very large plants and made the man very happy. Many of the plants even produced fruit, which not only made the man happy, but also tasted very good. The man shared the fruit with all those who came to visit and he loved to tell the story of the seeds and of his very good friend.

You cannot force a plant to grow, a flower to bloom, a fruit tree to produce its fruit anymore than you can an individual Christian or a church to grow. But doesn’t God require growth? In the book of Luke, Jesus told the parable of the barren fig tree. He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’” Luke 13.6-9

There are many examples throughout the Scripture that show God intends that both the individual Christian and the church grow, thrive, and produce abundant fruit. But what if we are not growing, what should we do? I think we all too often look to blame the plant when we don’t see genuine growth. But as the story of “A Man and a Handful of Seeds” illustrates, all it really takes for the seeds to reach their potential is to create the environment that the seeds require. In the right environment, the seeds cannot help but grow; the growth is in the seeds, they were always meant to grow, that is just what they do. So look around at your environment, roll up your sleeves, and get to work. Remember: till and fertilize the ground, provide lots of nutrients, and plenty of sunshine and water.

Pastor, if your church is not growing like it should, don’t look at your members, look at the environment that you’ve put them in. Make it a growth environment and start looking for a bigger building!

He shall be like a tree, planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper. Psalms 1.3

Written by Sam Al-Saadi 1/14/12

Second Book, Much Like the First

Anyone who would like to place an advance order for my second book - A Friend Named Jesus - can do so by a quick note to my e-mail at imnewkris@yahoo.com.  I will let you know an expected ship date and where to send payment.  Also let me know if you would like a signed copy - which will take a little longer.  Cost is $15 (plus shipping). 

This book is about seasons of life and how a follower of Christ sees them.  From the freshness of spring, the busy-ness of summer, the stillness of autumn and the quiet of winter God is unchanging.  Like my first book, it is a collection of short stories, poems and reflections.  Some of them you have read here on the blog, others were written many years ago - as far back at 1988. 

To whet your appetite, many readers requested an account of Lisa's version of A Night at the Theater.  As fictional as the first, A Night in the Audience tells Lisa's story.  

 Below is a sneak-peek:

A Night in the Audience

 ***

 

            Protected by the leather about her, she huddled in her seat hoping he wouldn’t know she was there.  She wondered if her Day Class peers would fill the front row or be seated elsewhere.  She hoped she would recognize the professor, so as to assure her attendance would be noted.  She wished she could have been at the performance with her Week-End classmates, but she would be busy getting divorced when they were in the audience.

Lisa was startled by a deep bass voice suddenly beside her, “Good evening.”

            “Hello,” she responded politely.

            “I believe you may be in my seat,” he stated quietly.

Walk in the Light

I live so close to my church that I walk to church – snow, rain, cold – I walk. I really couldn’t park much closer than I live so there is no point in driving. Mostly, I enjoy it. It gives me a little space to put away home and get my mind ready for church. I love church, by the way, which you already know if you know me at all.


The sky was so intensely blue, the sun so intensely bright and the snow so intensely white that it actually hurt my eyes. I was teared up and struggling to see where to place my feet as I walked. Maybe you have walked in a light as bright, too? Well, this is how my writer’s eyes lived the moment….

My eyes are tired. They are puffy and dark and small and full of unbidden tears. The brightness of the sun makes me look away and down. Instinct tells me it’s too bright! I can’t see before me. I can’t open my eyes. Not only the sun is bright, but the snow reflects that light and throws snowflakes at me formed on the wind. They dart at me like tiny daggers pushing me back.

I want to shield myself from the brilliance, do something to stop the burning. I should have just stayed inside, tucked away, in my dark, quiet, space.

But I need to go to church.

I can’t stay where I am if I’m going to grow. I need to be fed by the community that is church.

I need some iron to brush against me and rough off the edges. I need some gentle voices to fill the empty places. I need to have someone touch me, hug me, tell me they are glad I’m here! I need someone to pull away the aloneness and give me value.

I need to tell someone they make me smile, to give encouragement to someone else, to let them hear me pray, to sing, to share the joy He brings.

I understand the sharpness of the light. I know the scientific implications. My mind is wrapped around it.

I know why I must leave my little apartment behind and get through it.

But recognizing and living are two different things. No one can walk through the light for me. No one can clean the burn – only my tears can clear my vision. No one can keep walking for me. I must see where I need to be and I must do what it takes to get there.

Walking through the brilliance, I see His majesty at a whole new level.

The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn't put it out. John 1:5, The Message