Daffodil!

I am SO excited!!!  My first daffodil has bloomed!  Back in May I bought the bulbs and planted them in the ground.  Then I waited.  Weeks passed.  Eventually the leaves started poking through the ground.  I waited some more.  More weeks passed and then the flower buds started appearing.  Days passed.  Days where I checked on the flowers multiple times a day, eagerly anticipating the opening of the first flower.  Now, four months later, my patience is rewarded by my first daffodil with more on the way.  Growth takes time.

 When I purchased the daffodil bulbs, I purchased a mixed collection of seven bulbs.  I planted six of them and gave the last one to my Mum.  They didn't all exhibit signs of growth at the same time.  In fact, I thought one of them would never grow and so I planted snowdrops close around it.  Suffice it to say, I was pleasantly surprised when the leaves of the sixth bulb started poking through the surface of the soil.  Growth happens at different rates.

Besides growing daffodils, I also spent a couple of afternoons planting seeds in my veggie garden.  I planted peas, beans, tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, lettuce, spinach and asian spinach.  The peas, the asian spinach and the beetroots were the first to germinate.  The weeds were even quicker, although it was a bit hard to tell which plants were weeds and which were from seeds that I planted.  Experience tells me that I will need to nurture the plants that I want to grow and remove the ones that I don't in order to get the results, the harvest, that I desire.  Growth requires nurture.

There is a third garden that I am working on, the garden of my mind.  I am growing neural pathways.  I am learning to identify 'weeds' as well as what skills to plant and how to nurture my garden.  I have other gardeners who are helping me.  Gardeners who know more about different plants (skills) and how to grow them.  This growth requires nurture.  This growth happens at different rates.  This growth takes time.

Rerouting

Have you ever been out driving and taken a wrong turn?  I have.  Once when I was visiting a friend I took the wrong exit.  Unfortunately, there was no way to get back on the freeway again heading in the same direction at the location of where I exited the freeway.  After turning right and heading across the freeway I travelled through a couple of intersections before I turned left again.  Now I was travelling on a road that theoretically was parallel to the highway.  Night was coming on and I ended up in this small town.  It was pretty empty.  I pulled over to look at my phone and try to figure out where to go.    In the meantime, a hoon sped past me.  Boy am I glad that I was pulled over and that crazy driver is in front of me instead of racing up behind me, I thought.  Eventually, I confirmed that I was headed in the right direction and so I pulled back onto the road again.  After several minutes I caught sight of the freeway and was soon cruising along on it once more.  I knew where I was for sure now and I knew where to go.  A few minutes down the road I happened to make another wrong turn, but I realised immediately and was able to make a U-turn and head back in the right direction.  Finally, I made it to my destination on my roundabout route.

We like to think that life is like following a route on our phone.  God has it all mapped out.  We just need to pray and read the Bible and follow it.  We might take a wrong turn, but that is OK because God will just reroute us.  We can choose whether or not to follow the route.

Sometimes we are travelling through life in a car where we are not the driver.  Sometimes the driver takes a wrong turn that has devastating consequences for them, the others in the car and the others on the road.  It may not even be their fault that they took a wrong turn.  Perhaps someone else was reading the maps and telling them what to do and they gave the wrong instructions.  I've experienced that. 

While this analogy seems nice, except for the fact that we can't always be the driver, I don't think it is very realistic.  I don't think life is quite like following a detailed route, like travelling from one location in Melbourne's west to another in Melbourne's east.  I've done that before too and made some wrong turns with a phone that didn't have the capability of rerouting me.  That resulted in me having to find a side street to pull over into so that I could re-enter my destination and get a new route (or doing it while driving on a freeway that had me heading north instead of west!).  Shhh!  Don't tell anyone!  Needless to say I was so grateful when I upgraded to a new phone and had the luxury of being automatically rerouted when I made a wrong turn!

I think life is more like the trip I made when I moved interstate.  I had a final destination where I needed and wanted to be, but it was up to me to decide how I was going to get there.  I was travelling from Melbourne to NNSW.  Because of the situation with COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns et cetera I desired to avoid Sydney.  Hence I chose to travel the inland route.  I passed through a number of different towns and had stops and detours for food, fuel and sleep along the way.  There was no right or wrong way for me to go so long as I continued to travel in the general direction of my destination.  There were two fairly direct routes that I could have chosen (coastal through Sydney or inland through Dubbo), but there was a lot of choice within those routes.  Obviously, if I had headed west towards Adelaide I wouldn't have reached my destination but neither would I have been heading in the general direction of my destination.

As Christians, God has given us the Bible.  He hasn't given each one of us a detailed GPS route telling us exactly what decision to make and when.  The Bible contains information about two possible destinations.  Once destination is heaven and the other is everywhere but.  Just like my one destination was home and the other option was everywhere but home.  The Bible contains tips and tricks on how to reach the destination of heaven and where you will end up if you don't end up at that destination but it doesn't outline each individual turn to make.  It isn't a GPS.  God doesn't want robots in heaven.  He wants intelligent human beings who want to be home with Him and who have chosen to follow his tips and tricks so that they can reach that destination.  He wants people who are heading in that general direction.

Sometimes, because we don't have a GPS telling us where to go, or we are in a black spot, we need to get out of our cars and ask someone for help.  Because we don't have a GPS telling us what choices to make in life, sometimes we need to get out of our self-sufficiency and ask someone for help.  Somewhere along the way on my journey through life I picked up this idea that if you pray and read the Bible you will have all you need to manage any challenge that comes your way all by yourself.  When that idea was put to the test, it didn't hold up.  I didn't find the help that I needed in praying or reading the Bible, but people came into my life that did provide the help that I needed.  Numerous people spread over a number of states and over a period of time helped me to conquer the enormous challenges that I faced in my life.  They were my lifesavers.

Let's reroute our thinking.  Head in the general direction of heaven, if that's what you want to do.  Read the Bible and pray to help you along the way.  Ask for help from other people when you need it and provide help to other people when they need it.

Characteristics of the Righteous

At the beginning of this year I was moving to a new town in New South Wales. In preparation for this, I decided to visit the local Seventh-day Adventist church. I arrived early but since no-one else was there yet, I spent a few minutes reading in my car. Unfortunately the content of the book was upsetting. Also, I got some dark looks from people when they saw my number plate (I still had Victorian registration plates on my car at that stage and Victoria had had a lot of trouble with COVID-19 infection control). As a result I needed to calm down before I could go in to the church and ended up walking in late. I slipped into a pew near the back. No-one greeted me, no-one smiled at me, no-one even acknowledged my presence. As I sat there I came ever closer to bursting into tears. Tears of anger and frustration. The comments of the leader contributed to my distressed state. Suddenly I got up and walked out. No-one followed me, no-one looked at me. I never went back. A few weeks later I received a leaflet in my letter box about Bible studies. What a joke. The impression that church had left on me was far from favourable. There was no way I was going back there, let alone study the Bible with someone from there. That was the coldest church that I ever experienced.

That experience along with similar experiences has caused me to think about Adventists. In general, Adventists pride themselves with having "the truth", with "keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus", with "keeping the Sabbath" and with "looking forward to Jesus' second coming" among other things. They think they are doing the right thing and yet they lack love.

When the Son of Man comes as King and all the angels with him, he will sit on his royal throne, and the people of all the nations will be gathered before him. Then he will divide them into two groups, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the righteous people on his right and the others on his left. Then the King will say to the people on his right, 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father! Come and possess the kingdom which has been prepared for you ever since the creation of the world. I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me a drink; I was a stranger and you received me in your homes, naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me, in prison and you visited me.'

The righteous will then answer him, 'When, Lord, did we ever see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we ever see you a stranger and welcome you in our homes, or naked and clothe you? When did we ever see you sick or in prison, and visit you?' The King will reply, 'I tell you, whenever you did this for one of the least important of these members of my family, you did it for me!'

Then he will say to those on his left, 'Away from me, you that are under God's curse! Away to the eternal fire which has been prepared for the Devil and his angels! I was hungry but you would not feed me, thirsty but you would not give me a drink; I was a stranger but you would not welcome me in your homes, naked but you would not clothe me; I was sick and in prison but you would not take care of me.'

Then they will answer him, 'When, Lord, did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and would not help you? The King will reply, 'I tell you, whenever you refused to help one of these least important ones, you refused to help me.' These then, will be sent off to eternal punishment, but the righteous will go to eternal life." Matthew 25:31-46 GNT. 

God's people, the righteous, the ones who receive the reward of eternal life, are those who cared for the people who were in need.  How does this fit in with the verse often quoted by Adventists from Revelation about God's people?

This calls for endurance on the part of God's people, those who obey God's commandments and are faithful to Jesus. Revelation 14:12 GNT. 

Adventists often apply these characteristics to themselves because they "keep ALL of God's commandments" including the seventh day as the Sabbath. However, what does it mean to obey God's commandments? What are God's commandments? This question has been answered by Jesus himself.

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they came together, and one of them, a teacher of the Law, tried to trap him with a question. "Teacher," he asked, "which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"

Jesus answered, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and most important commandment. The second most important commandment is like it: 'Love your neighbour as you love yourself.' The whole Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets depend on these two commandments." Matthew 22:34-40 GNT.

So, to obey the commandments of God means to love God with all your heart, soul and mind and to love your neighbour as yourself and you demonstrate this love by the way you treat other people.  Truth without love is not truth.

Now I don't want to leave you with the impression that all "Christians" or all "Adventists" are unkind and unloving.  I have encountered some who have shown genuine love and care towards those who were in need.  I have been a recipient of some of that love and care myself.  I have also encountered people outside of the church who have demonstrated a lot of love and care towards me and my family when we were in need.  God doesn't need us to judge each other.  He needs us to be His hands on this earth to show love and care to all around us.  

Help to carry one another's burdens, and in this way you will obey the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2 GNT.