Sheaths

The rain and the cooler weather are just wonderful!!! I have really enjoyed being outside and working on things, especially now that it isn’t 100+ degrees.

The cooler weather does make for falling leaves (is this our version of fall?!??!) and so, out I went today to do a little clearing out. Lots of the sheaths are falling off the bamboo and piling up. In several places it is even difficult to see that there really is a path. 

It’s like that, isn’t it? You’re just going along your day and poof there’s this stuff in the way! Sometimes we stop and question the situation, or ask God about it and that is great. But, being the humans we are, sometimes we let that stuff stop us altogether or we plow right over it. We don’t ask, we don’t seek, we don’t…well, we just don’t. Now really, that ‘stuff’ could be anything ~ a job or a person, a seemingly benign word spoken toward us, really I guess that is why we call it stuff, ‘cuz it is.

In the case of the labyrinth, these sheaths are a feather’s weight, but still big in size. It would take nothing to move them, once you knew you should. (note to yourself: move sheaths) 

So, here’s the deal for me, God will provide the people to pour wise counsel into our lives.  He will give guidance thru His Word and He will prompt our hearts in a myriad of ways. I guess all this “thinking” is partly due to the scripture I read this morning in my devotional…

Jesus: ¹⁸ Do you mean you don’t understand this one either? Whatever goes into people from outside can’t defile them ¹⁹ because it doesn’t go into their hearts. Outside things go through their guts and back out, thus making all foods pure. ²⁰ No, it’s what comes from within that corrupts. ^21-22 It’s what grows out of the hearts of people that leads to corruption: evil thoughts, immoral sex, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wicked acts, treachery, sensuality, jealousy, slander, pride, and foolishness. ²³ All of these come from within, and these are the sins that truly corrupt a person.

Mark 7:18-23 ~ The Voice Version

So, yes, there are an absolute ton of things in this, but here’s what hit me on the head this morning…right after the blatantly obvious, ‘yes, I don’t get it again!’

We create our own sheaths. Personally, I don’t need anyone else to take credit for the stuff in my path. Quite capable on my own, thank you very much. And that is part of what Jesus is saying here, don’t ya think? We so often want a rule to control something, or to follow ~ we need another person, or circumstance to blame ~ we live at the feet of deflection.

Jesus gave us, created us, with our own measuring stick-o-stuff ~ our own heart’s overflow. THAT is our first signal that perhaps we’re not following a prompting, or truly hearing (then applying) wise counsel, or seeking Him in His word. More often than not, I have found that God has not moved the sheaths out of the way because the ‘work’ of moving them is the very work that needs to occur in my heart. Had I sat, or stomped right over it, I would have missed the lesson/the growth that God intended for me.

I really encourage you to read all of Mark 7, because it is wonderful!!! But for this point, skip down a bit to Mark 7:26-29…

²⁶ The woman was not a Jew, but a Syrophoenician (a Greek) by birth. All the same, she came to Jesus and begged Him to cast the unclean spirit out of her daughter.

Jesus (shaking His head): ²⁷ I must feed the children first. It would do no good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.

Syrophoenician Woman: ²⁸ Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table may eat of the children’s crumbs.

Jesus (smiling and nodding): ²⁹ This is a wise saying. Go back home. Your daughter is free of the spirit that troubled her.

 There are a whole bunch of lessons in those verses, but for me today this spoke loud and clear! This woman did not let her circumstance, her ‘place’ in the world or even her need keep her from seeking Jesus. My goodness, as far as she was concerned, she wasn’t even welcomed by Jesus, BUT she knew He would hear her heart. We need to be more like this woman...not so "careful" of limiting our approach to our Saviour, simply because we think we know His response to our request, or we think that it isn’t important enough or maybe we just forget that we need to bring everything/every moment before Him….the truth is, His response is always welcoming, of Love embracing our path and helping us learn from whatever He has put there, so that we too may see that it is as Jesus has told us...  

And when she returned to her house, she discovered that it was as Jesus had told her. Her daughter lay on her bed, in her right mind, whole and healthy.

Mark 7:30 ~ The Voice Version