If you plant pumpkin seeds you expect to harvest pumpkins.
If you sow corn seeds you will reap corn.
Apple seeds will yield a harvest of apples.

The principle of sowing and reaping is a simple truth.  Yet in life, love and relationships we tend to overcomplicate it.  Why?  Because when we fully grasp the simplicity of the principle we lose our right to complain, blame and rattle off our long list of excuses.  We are forced to examine how it is we are planting the same seeds over and over again, day after day, yet expecting a different harvest.  Too often we plant apple seeds and hope for corn. Want a different harvest in your life?  Plant different seeds.

Galatians 6:7 breaks it down, “Do not be deceived; God cannot be mocked.  A man reaps what he sows.”  All of our actions and words have consequences.  All of our actions and words determine our harvest.  Words of life produce life.  Words of death produce destruction.  Purposeful actions move you closer to your dreams.  Lack of action keeps you stuck and distant from your desired harvest.

This principle was in play for me when I watched the Olympic Games this past summer.  I marveled at the beautifully sculpted bodies of the athletes who competed for gold.  I wanted and wished for a body just like that.  Yet check out the stats I posted:

[ ] Opening Ceremonies were enjoyed with Baskin Robbins chocolate peanut butter chunk ice cream.
[ ] The women’s gymnastics team takes the all-around gold.  I watch the victory with a plate of cheesy nachos…topped with lettuce and tomato to score a few healthy points.
[ ] Closing Ceremonies were accompanied by a pint of Starbucks Classic Coffee ice cream.

I rest my case.  The principle of sowing and reaping is painfully simple.

“Serve the Lord with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind.  If you seek Him, he will be found by you.  Consider now, for the Lord has chosen you.  Be strong and DO THE WORK.”  1 Chronicles 28: 9-10.

Isn’t it time to put down the proverbial ice cream and do the work required?

May we allow the ROCK Eternal to plant His seeds deep within our hearts.  May we “hear the word and accept it, and produce a crop – thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown.”  Mark 4:20

Now that’s a return and harvest only the Most High God can make possible for you.  He created you for a very specific harvest.  Check in with Him often and surely He’ll reveal the seeds for you to plant today and every day.  “I am the vine; you are the branches.  If you abide in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.”  John 15: 5.  Remain in Him and you’ll experience the joy of an abundant ROCKalicious harvest.

There are so many benefits to starting the day with God.  Never had I considered one of them to be saving me from assault and battery charges. Not until “the incident” at the movie theater had I ever considered such a benefit.  The one-year anniversary of “the incident” is fast approaching and you’ll soon discover that I clearly have some more inside work to do.  Perhaps it’s because ever since the incident, I see The Movie Lady at the gym, the grocery store, the elementary school.  Everywhere, it seems.

(Strike up the dramatic Hollywood soundtrack as background music.)  I awoke to a dark, rainy day on this particular student holiday.  The day before we’d made plans to meet another mom and her two kids at the theater to take in a new movie – which turned out to be a brilliant plan given the weather.  The house was still quiet.  Not a creature was stirring, not even the kids.  I spent some leisurely time with God in my prayer chair to calibrate myself for the day ahead.

Within a few hours, we arrived at the theater early to meet our friends.  The combination of no school, bad weather and a new movie release brought a sea of people to the theater so we decided to go save six seats in the theater before standing in the mile-long popcorn line.  Yet another brilliant plan because when we returned with all of our buttery deliciousness, the theater was jam packed.  Only single seats remained but near the top we could see our saved seats so up we went.

One problem.  Only five seats were saved with our jackets.  My seat was occupied by a woman and on the other side of her were two young kids.  I politely told her that we had saved six seats and that I’d like to get my seat back.  Staring straight ahead she said, “You can’t save seats at the movies.”  I tried to reason with her. I tried to talk tough.  I tried to guilt her into giving me back my seat – her kids were watching after all.  The exchange went on and grew a bit louder and that’s when two nearby women, chimed in with a crescendo “oooooohhhhhhhh” as though certain the juicy argument would soon attract security.

In that instant, I knew it was God who spoke to me.  It was not audible but oh, was it crystal clear.  He whispered, “Are you for me? Your kids are watching you…along with half the movie theater. Are you going to represent me well or not?”  The theater of my mind shot back to the scene of the morning prayer chair and the passage in Joshua 5:13 – “He looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand.  Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?’”  Similar questions flooded over me as the previews ended and the feature film began.  Who am I for?  Who do I want to represent in this moment?  I made my way to a single seat one row down.

The movie played on and I couldn’t have told you one thing about it.  I was churning and burning on the inside.  One hour into the movie a beautiful opportunity presented itself on a silver platter.  The Movie Lady had to leave the theater with one of her children to take him to the bathroom.  I looked back and said to my kids, “Hey – here’s my chance!” Every cell of my body wanted to hop the row and sit in my original seat next to The Movie Lady’s daughter.

God used my sweet Lauren to cement me to my lone seat.  My daughter practically yelled down the aisle, “Mom – you always say, ‘return evil with good.’”  Darn – there goes that option.  But I could still glare at The Movie Lady when she returned to the theater.  I shot her visual daggers as I tracked every step of her walk back to my original seat…turns out she was petite…I could have taken her.

As the old hymn resounds, “I am prone to wander.”  I am so weak in my natural self.  And sadly, all too often, I do not choose to back away from the evil one’s traps.  I can so quickly make sin my master rather than the ROCK Eternal.

But on this day, He rescued me.  I was ROCKed at the movies and it was all because I started my day with Him and invited Him into it.  His power can be our power when we spend time with Him.  He loves it when we allow Him to pour His SUPER all over our NATURAL.  Sit.  Stay.  Restore.  ROCKon.

So this month I don’t have a brand new shiny deeply spiritual theological principle to share with you.  Just a simple blockbuster benefit to practicing His Presence:  Go to God, not jail.

God.  Politics.  Can there be two more polarizing topics?  So in this big election season, to help us all remember that we can make our views and values heard while still playing nice, I thought I’d open with the band Gungor’s simple song…

“God is not a Republican.  God is not a Democrat.  God is not a white man or a black man.  He is not a flag – not even American.  God does not depend on government.  God is love.  He loves everyone.”  Enjoy this song with a twist of fun.

In the still of morning, when I hang out with God, I tend to break it all down into four main areas of focus when politics gets me all twisted up.  As I sift through all of the campaign ads, headlines, conventions and debates and put them through the filter of God’s timeless Truth, I regain my peace.  I get grounded in His Word and my trust is restored.  The twisted gets untwisted.

1). God

“All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before Him, for dominion belongs to the Lord and He rules over the nations.”  Psalm 22: 27-28

“For He is the living God and he endures forever; His kingdom will not be destroyed, His dominion will never end.”  Daniel 6: 26

“All a man’s ways seem right to him, but the Lord weighs the heart.”  Proverbs 21: 2

2). Our Nation

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”  Psalm 33:12

“O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of love with all who love Him and obey His commands, we have sinned and we have done wrong.  We have been wicked and rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws.  We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy.  O Lord, listen!  O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act!”  Daniel 9: 4, 5, 18, 19

3). Our President

“Everything in the heaven and earth is yours O Lord and this is your kingdom.  We adore you as being in control of everything.  You are the ruler over all mankind.  Your hand controls power and might and it is at your discretion that men are made great and given strength.”  1 Chronicles 11-12

“The Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone He wishes.”  Daniel 4: 25

4). We the People

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.   ‘You are my witnesses,’ declares the Lord, ‘that I am God.’ ” Isaiah 43: 1, 12

“O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name.”  Nehemiah 1: 11

“A new command I give you:  Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.”  John 13: 34-35

In this hotly contested season, as the divisive days count down, may we all revere His name by loving those we agree with…and those with whom we deeply disagree.  By THIS they will know that we are His disciples.  By THIS our democracy will thrive under the authority of His Theocracy.

The electronic devices of the day have a great deal of our focus.  Everyone seems to be looking down… reading, scrolling or feverishly typing the next text message.  How many hours a day do you spend looking down?

My Gramps, pictured here, lived passionately for 98 years and loved gardening, farming and tending his vineyard.  God brought him home in 2003 but his memory and the images of his towering sunflowers live on.

I realized years ago that the sunflower holds a powerful message and reminder for those of us who follow Jesus Christ.  Each and every day, the sunflower tracks the sun from east to west.  No matter how dark it gets, this flower of the sun is always in pursuit of the light source.

And we have the same opportunity as children of the Son.  We can continuously seek the Son of the Living God no matter how dark life gets.  “God is light.  In Him there is no darkness.”  1 John 1:5.  We can daily track The Light of the World and commune with Him from sun up to sundown.  It’s in Him, and Him alone, that we find the perspective and peace that transcend all understanding.

It’s all about the lens through which we choose to view the world.  We can start with our relationships and circumstances and try to see God.  Or we can start with God and view our relationships and circumstances from His all-encompassing vantage point.  Everything changes when you illuminate it all with His Truth first.  “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”  Matthew 6:33.

How quickly we forget that “all these things” we see are temporary.  It’s so often the temporary things that can exhaust us, exasperate us and bring us to the end of ourselves.  “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.   So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”  2 Corinthians 4: 16-18.

Want a heart full of Sonshine that not only dispels the darkness of life but splashes out over everyone who encounters you?  Look up!  Seek and track daily THE Light Source.  “Those who look to Him are radiant.”  Psalm 34:5.

“As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him. For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the ROCK except our God? It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.” Psalm 18: 3-32

The great news is God makes your way perfect. The not-so-great news is you don’t get to define “perfect” and neither do I.

We all love life when the path before us is free and easy. Think of the days you’re lovin’ life and your spirit is soaring and everything is as it should be. The more days like that the better, I say.

Aaahhh – but those days are never guaranteed and history and human nature have proven that easy street is a dangerous place. In the perfect world, Adam and Eve fell to Satan’s deception. King David was at the top of his game leading Israel as a dominant nation when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and ordered her husband killed, triggering great destruction and torment all the way around. King Solomon, the wisest man other than Jesus to ever live, had power, wealth and fame; yet his love for pagan women and their idolatrous ways led to his downfall.

Easy street dulls our dependence on God. We are so prone to self-sufficiency.

A favorite line in a piece titled “Wait” comes to mind in which God says, “You’d have what you want but you wouldn’t know me.” Above all else our very personal God wants an intimate relationship with each and every one of us. Isn’t it true that we are more likely to seek Him out when the road gets rocky? How would we ever get to intimately know the Great Comforter if we never needed comfort?

In addition to comfort, God also provides guidance along the everyday path. Especially when heavy rocks block our path and detours dash our original plans. “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Isaiah 30:21

He’ll guide you step-by-step and illuminate the path to take. The Conley 4 have a summer tradition of camping in a genuine stage-coach on the Rock Ranch in Rock, GA. In the dark of night it’s just me and the flashlight ever so slowly finding the safest path to the outhouse. The circle of light only illuminates my next step. That’s all I get to see. Sometimes God illuminates multiple steps at once but much more often He reveals just one step at a time. Brilliant on His part because this means we have to frequently check back in with Him for further instruction.

How do you get this great Divine guidance deep in your spirit? Choose to put God continually before you.

Slow down. Seek Him. Follow Him. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways remember Him and He will make your path straight.” Proverbs 3: 5-6 “I will praise the Lord who counsels me. I have set the Lord always before me. I will not be shaken.” Psalm 16: 7-8

He chose you before the foundation of the world to walk with Him along a path designed uniquely for you. Stay in step with Him. Not all that you encounter will be good but God promised to work it all for good. As you walk in His ways you will discover an assurance that all is well and a peace that surpasses all understanding.

Surrender your path to One far greater and more powerful. You will never be misled.