The Need for Fertilizer

And he told them this parable: “There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to the gardener, ‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. [So] cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’ He said to him in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.’” Luke 13: 6-9

This has been one of my favorite parables since my cooperating teacher taught about it during my student teaching. It's a pretty easy parable to understand as far as Jesus' parables go, for those of us who know what the old fashioned fertilizer is.
Crap happens. Sometimes we need to be fertilized a bit for us to start bearing fruit. Fertilizer can show up in many different forms, but it will always help us to bear great fruit.

I had dinner with a friend last night. She was a part of my youth group and now she's in college and doing well. It was great talking with her and a good reminder to me that quite often age has nothing to do with the ability to have spiritual insight. I'm not very good at being a good friend or reaching out to people when I really should talk though something. I have great friends, and last night was a great reminder that God has placed wonderful people in my life for a reason.

Peace all

Doing What I Can

I'm reading a book called "Abandonment to Divine Providence" by Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade.
This quote from the book sums up exactly my goal.

"whatsoever You will. The mind prefers one thing, the body another, but, Lord, I desire nothing but to accomplish Your holy will. Work, contemplation or prayer whether vocal or mental, active or passive; the prayer of faith or of understanding; that which is distinguished in kind, or gifted with universal grace: it is all nothing Lord unless made real and useful by Your will. It is to Your holy will that I devote myself and not to any of these things, however high and sublime they may be, because it is the perfection of the heart for which grace is given, and not for that of the mind."

It's a great read so far. I'm not trying to rush through it. I'll read something and if it doesn't sink in I'll read it again. At this point I'm doing what I can do to try do discern God's will for my life. This is reading is helping, but there's always more I can do.

Peace all