Are You Listening Or Are You Hearing?

It has been a long time since I made an entry-almost five months. Where have I been? Listening and hearing. There's a big difference between listening and hearing. One you do with your ears and one you do with your heart. Oddly, to hear you have to listen. What have I been focusing my attention on you ask. Changes.
I read something written by Jay Adams tonight that I found profound. He asked, "When is a liar not a liar?" and answers from Ephesians 4 "the liar is no longer a liar only when he becomes a truth teller." He talks about putting off and putting on. I want to throw off and jump into and skip the longsuffering. But, there is a season and a precursor to some seasons. Have you ever had cabin fever? You know that feeling that although you know in your heart the snow will melt and the flowers bloom once again--it sure doesn't look like it or feel like it and you are so tired of that stuck in the snow bank with no hope of digging out feeling. It is then that you dig out the seed catalogs and start planning your planting and dream of the harvest. Well, that's what my folks used to do.
So, I have been digging in the Word, praising and worshiping, praying and dreaming of the harvest. Not just planting seeds but cultivating them and BELIEVING that they will sprout, grow, bloom, blossom and bear much abundant fruit. It finally got from my head to my heart--the only place where it can grow. I was listening but now I am hearing.

Before moving to NC, I lived in Maine most of my life. I used to say that they had 6 months of winter. It really seemed like it to me. Seriously, we had the heat on at night from late August through June. The winters seem so long. I looked forward to the January thaw. It got up in the 40's and we through off our coats to play outside. Cruelly, it only lasted a few short days but it was our first glimpse of spring-a reviving of the hope of spring. This would continue on with colder and warmer until you were convinced spring was finally here. Then, we often got that spring snow storm. The one that often tried to cover the early spring blooms. But we could not be deterred this time because we knew that we knew that in a few short weeks all the trees would be budded out and all would be in full array of colors. Once again we would have made it through the long cold winter and like calves let out to pasture we would leap and dance in the sun's warmth again.

It sounds silly. How could you let yourself get that low when you know it is only temporary? How could you let depression creep in? How could you ever doubt? But when you are nose deep in a snow drift and the cold is seeping into your bones, it is easy to forget that underneath your feet are planted crocus bulbs and they will burst through the snow at their appointed time in all their beauty. It is good to keep a picture of them handy to remind yourself. Keep your focus on the beauty to come not the barrenness around you.

Lately, it has been like that slow awakening of spring. The thaw then the deep freeze. The warmer temperatures then the cold. The slow creep up from week to week. The snowstorms and the occasional freezing rain. The ups and downs of the long season that seem to last forever. But, I have a picture in my head of budded trees, green grass, azaleas, wisteria, magnolias--oh the sweet smell of the magnolias.

That is how I am progressing. Things were thawing nicely and then a 'snow storm' and today I was exhausted from trying to dig out again. But I got out my 'seed catalog' and made my heart hear once again how beautiful the garden will be no matter how much snow is on top right now. And, it will thaw, it may be muddy for awhile but it will dry up, the grass will green up and be easier to walk on. I shall reap the harvest if I do not faint. God will not abandon me in my winter season. He will bring me forth into spring and summer and eventually to the bountiful harvest.