As I look out my window this morning I see a grey day.  Everything appears either black or white; even the evergreens don’t appear green, they appear black, dusted with the white of snow.

Except for a bird feeder that is a red barn.  In all that world outside my window there is but one colorful item.

These are the days that drive poor Carla to hunker under her light that mimics the sun’s rays.  Without it she gets low – of course she is not the only one; lots of people have that problem.

One year we had forty days without direct sunlight here in The Dalles, her dad was up here working on the kitchen in our house.  He was growing grumpier as the days went on.  Finally he packed up and went back to Redmond for the weekend, and came back two days later refreshed and ready to get back to work.

Don’t remember having that many days like that in the past – and since yesterday was such a bright sunny day – though still chilly here – the effects of today’s ‘day’ shouldn’t be too hard on us.

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“The cultivated field has yielded itself to the adventure of living. The protecting fence has opened to admit the plow, and the plow has come as plows always come, practical, cruel, business-like and in a hurry. Peace has been shattered by the shouting farmer and the rattle of machinery. The field has felt the travail of change; it has been upset, turned over, bruised and broken, but its rewards come hard upon its labors. The seed shoots up into the daylight its miracle of life, curious, exploring the new world above it. All over the field the hand of God is at work in the age-old and ever renewed service of creation. New things are born, to grow, mature, and consummate the grand prophecy latent in the seed when it entered the ground. Nature's wonders follow the plow.”  AW Tozer

Hosea 10:12 Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till He comes and rains righteousness on you.  KJV

As Christians we can become complacent.  We get busy with the things that help us care for our family, with the things that allow our children to grow into responsible adults, we need time to decompress – and slowly we stop relying on God, we start just doing things without asking for His help AND blessings on our life.

We start just existing, focusing on our life, but not on what really matters.

We need the Holy Spirit to ‘plow’ our heart, get it broken up and prepared for Him to do more work in our life and through us, present Him to the world in which we exist.

Even if we have remained loyal, fruitful and close to God, we need the revitalization that only the Holy Spirit can give us. 

We need our Pastors, teachers, reading Christian articles, books about other Christians or theology, being with Christians especially those we wish to be like and other gifts that God has prepared.

Continuing that work on the gardens in our heart, we need to share His Gospel, to plant new seeds, to give us new fertilizers, we need to water our hearts with the tears of the joy of forgiveness, all giving us new growth so that we produce vegetation that others may use to consume and become healthy in Jesus.

Even if we renew ourselves daily with God, there are times we just need to walk away, find a quiet place – could be for an hour or two, could be for a day or longer - and listen, remember what He has been telling us, showing us, teaching us and absorb that within our hearts and minds so that we come back to our section of the world refreshed and ready to do His service.

I need that plowing of the Holy Spirit; I need Him to break up ground that has grown old and unable to produce good fruit; I need Him to help me.

Later, Art (-: