One More Chance, Again

Luke 13:1-9

I want to begin by thanking you for your thoughts and prayers. I seem to have passed the worst part of my cold and am feeling much better today. I am good enough to get up off the couch and do a couple productive things today while still keeping my energy output at a minimum. For that I feel blessed.

Last week I shared a meal and a few hours with 2 of our young adults. We talked about colds and how they can become flus and how that can become something worse, like pneumonia. We talked about our individual  experiences with pneumonia and the losses, or close losses, of loved ones because of that virus.

It's not an easy thing to talk about mortality, especially at a young age (them, not me). When we are young we don't see life as something that's going to end anytime soon. Because of that some of the decisions we make as young people might be what I would call experimental. If we don't expand our boundaries we may never know how much we can accomplish.

However, if the decisions we make border on harming ourselves or others we most definitely want to re-examine them. This is where a close look at the reasons for our decisions might be beneficial. Do the reasons for the decision have anything to do with improving relationships with God, others, yourself, or creation? If not, and the eventual outcome of that decision is a separation of those relationships, then please re-think your motives and subsequent actions.

In our story today Jesus points out that not everything grows as it should, no matter how well it's cultivated. Sometimes when something isn't growing as it should we have a tendency to give up on it, pull it out from the ground by its roots, so to speak. Jesus, in his wisdom, makes note that the gardener hasn't quite given up on the plant yet, and feels that with just a little more time and a little more nurturing the tree will bear fruit.

We all make decisions in our lives, sometimes those decisions require quitting before we've tried everything we can in the time it may take to try them. Don't give up, my friends, and know that the gardener is not yet done nurturing you.