B.C. II (Bees Cops cont'd)

It is scary to think that one's heart can become hard so easily, without you hardly being aware of it, yet that is absolutely the truth. It's so easy to see it in others but so hard to see it in oneself . What's even scarier is recognizing that it can feel good to be in that hardened state, and because it feels good we assume it must be right. Let me illustrate.

My wife and I had had another one of those arguments where each is so convinced that their perspective is right and that the other just needs to get over their stubborness and admit they're wrong. It started over disagreeing on how much we should charge for our "free range, organic eggs" and then it spread to my commenting that she married the wrong person if that's how she wanted to live. By the time the salesman's call came on the phone she was in no mood to answer my question on whether we should buy more septic tank product (we definitely needed more product to clean our tanks, but not of the physical kind . . .). Fast forward to 24 hours later. A whole day went by and I knew things weren't good between us. But I was getting tired of having to admit, again, that I was wrong in any way. It's her turn to do some admitting. I'm just going to let her stew in her juices. If that's what she wants, she can have it. I'm still right anyway, I don't really have anything to confess. Most importantly I was feeling pretty good about it all. I didn't have any sense of guilt or wrong-doing. So the phone rings after we've gone to bed (we're lying there, giving each other the silent treatment) and I get up and answer it. It turned out to be an individual I needed to do some "hard talking to" - telling them something I knew they needed to hear but which wouldn't be easy for me to tell it or for them to hear it. Well, after that conversation was over, I crawl into bed next to my still silent partner and I'm thinking, "You hypocrite!" I had been feeling so smug about being right that I had lost my awareness to how hard-hearted I was becoming. Swallowing my pride, I initiated what fortunately became a healing conversation, and my relationship with my wife was fully restored.

Here are the pertinent observations/lessons learned from what had transpired:

HOW EASILY MY HEART CAN BECOME HARDENED WITH MY HARDLY EVEN BEING AWARE OF IT!

HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO NIP THAT HARDNESS IN THE BUD AS SOON AS IT IS RECOGNIZED!

Grace WILL come to help us overcome (that phone call after we went to bed) if we will recognize it and respond to it appropriately.

There is a scripture that speaks of "break(ing) up the fallow ground", which means to loosen up the soil of our hearts so that we can receive the seed of God's voice/word. Hard ground is a proud heart that doesn't need help and has lost the ability to hear His voice. Cultivated soil is the humility that says, "Help! I feel broken, plowed to pieces - please sow within me the word of life and water me so that Your seed can sprout, grow and bear good fruit!"

Bees, cops, price of eggs, a phone call in the night. Isn't it wonderful all the different ways that God will speak to us?! May He help us to break up the fallow ground of our hearts so that those words will not be lost to the birds or to weeds, but will instead find good soil to grow and fully mature in.

of bees and cops

My day started off badly because of overcast conditions. I had hoped to get up with the sun and check on my bees before they were too awake to care, but because of the clouds I got up later than I wanted to and had to rush the process of checking my two hives. The process went OK with no real mishaps other than the bees getting a bit more irritated than usual because of my not moving as slowly and carefully as I should have (bees don't like to be handled roughly or quickly). I only got stung by one bee that had crawled up my pant leg. The reason I was rushing things was because I didn't want to be late to work. But even with my rushing with the bees I was still running 5 minutes late. Even though I work for a very understanding boss who would've had no problem with my being late that day, I still don't like being late to work. Consequently, I ignored that little voice that was trying to tell me that it really was foolish to have handled the bees the way I did, and that to drive 10 - 15 mph over the speed limit was also not a good thing. But hey, I'm a risk-taker by nature, just being who I am . . . I can still make it to work on time if I go just a little bit faster. Cops never patrol these country roads.

I saw the parked cop car about the same time his radar gun saw me. Two minutes later I was parked on the shoulder of the road. What had been a still, small voice was now a glaring, flashing red light. Got the message now, Mr. Jones?

As I reflected on these happenings at the start of my day the message came through to me clear as a bell, and I want to pass it on to you, my reader, because I believe it is an important message we all need to be reminded of from time to time. The message is this: DO NOT IGNORE THAT LITTLE VOICE THAT YOU KNOW IS RIGHT BUT YOU WISH IT WASN'T. The danger of ignoring what we know to be right is that our ability to hear that voice becomes weakened, even to the point that we will no longer hear it if we ignore it too often. It's called a hardened conscience. We need to keep our hearts soft and easily receptive to Heaven's voice. If it irritates, challenges, pushes us out of our comfort zone, it's a pretty good indicator that we'd better pay attention. Would you ignore that little warning light on your dash that's telling you you're almost out of gas?

Fortunately, grace is available to all of us who from time to time ignore that still, small voice. Just like the cop who only gave me a warning instead of a ticket, Heaven will give us warnings before

the harsher judgments come. But I am resolved to continue to work on slowing down in life. As the saying goes, "speed kills", and I want to be about life, not death.