Green or Brown?

“As the deer thirsts for streams of water, so my soul thirsts for you, O God.”

Psalm 42:1

While walking around the circle in our neighborhood one morning,  I found myself looking at all of my neighbor’s front lawns.  Since it hadn’t rained very much for several weeks, all the grass was practically dead.  I thought to myself, “At least all of our yards are uniform in color – brown!”

However, I did notice one thing.  The majority of the yards had about two or three strips of green grass growing horizontally across the front.  The tall, green, lush grass looked almost like velvet and was absolutely beautiful amidst the brown, dry grass.

I knew the reason it was so green was because it was growing over the septic tank field lines.  This grass was getting watered and fed every day.  It was getting what it needed to live.  The rest of the grass in the yard had gotten no nourishment, so it was dying.

Like the green grass, we as Christians have what we need to live.  John 6:35 says, “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that comes to me shall never hunger; and he that believes on me shall never thirst.” 

When we spend time with God each day, we will grow and flourish.  There will be outward evidence in our lives that we have been eating and drinking from God’s Word.  As we grow spiritually, others will see a change in our appearance.  When we don’t spend time with God, we will spiritually dry up and die just like unwatered grass.  

Our daily prayer should be that when others look at us they will see Christ living in us.  Stop and ask yourself today, “What color am I? Green or brown?” 

Back to School

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”  Hebrews 12:1

When I was in Junior High School, my best friend and I decided to participate in the annual Walk-A-Thon.  We both got friends and family members to sponsor us for the ten mile walk.  We were very excited and were convinced we would be the first two to finish.

We had developed a no-fail plan on how we could be successful at finishing and winning this race. We would first start out by jogging, then, we’d walk for a ways, and when necessary, we’d run if we needed to get ahead of someone. Then, finally, because we would be so far ahead of everyone else, we would leisurely walk over the finish line.

We started out following our plan.  We jogged, then walked, and then ran a little.  We held our heads up proudly as we passed the “slow pokes.”  We started panting about the second mile.  Around the fifth mile, we could barely feel our feet.  Then, finally, about the seventh mile, we collapsed in the grass on the side of the road and a police car came by and picked us up.

When we arrived back at the school, we realized the only “first place” finish we had accomplished was to be the first to arrive in a police car!  Even though our egos and feet were hurting, we were still filled with a sense of pride that we had walked seven out of the ten miles.

Paul teaches us in First Corinthians 9:24 that in a race all runners run, but only one gets the prize.  We may not finish the way we expected, but if we’ll keep on the course and try our best, with God’s help, we will finish the race He has set before us.

A new school year is about to begin and, if you are a teacher, you have prepared the course your students need to follow.  When the time comes and one of them feels they can go no further, may you be the police car that comes by and carries them the rest of the way to the finish line.