Mushrooms

Lately we've had a lot of rainfall in Alabama. And anytime that happens, up come the mushrooms. I have never seen so many different kinds of mushrooms in my life. Not just the wide-topped brown mushrooms or tiny white ones I'm used to seeing, but tall white ones and some tan ones with cauliflower looking tops. I've seen lawns full of these various kinds of mushrooms. I actually think they are kinda cool looking, but my guess is they are not a welcome sight to homeowners, as often I'll see the mushrooms tossed into the curb and shriveled.

My daily flip-a-day inspirational calendar had a quote recently that made me think about the mushrooms. It said, "God is often more concerned about your response to the problem than he is in removing the problem."

See, the lawns are lusher and greener than ever with all our rain, but with those blessings to the lawnscape comes the unwelcome mushrooms. Could God prevent the mushrooms from popping up? Sure. But He doesn't.

It's the same with our spiritual journeys. Some are misled to believe that once you've become a Christian, all the world is a happy place. Your lawn is green and lush forever. However, this is not the case, at least not on Earth. Mushrooms pop up all the time, smack dab in the middle of the lushest and greenest of times. You can try to yank those mushrooms up if you want, but that doesn't necessarily prevent them from coming back, and sometimes more plentiful.

So how do we react to those times? With God as our anchor, sustainer and guide, with grace we can handle anything unwelcome that pops up in our lives. And if the problem doesn't seem to be going away any time soon, we can delight in knowing God is in control of the situation and maybe just wants to grow us a bit ... make us a hardier lawn, so to speak.

In the meantime, it doesn't hurt to take good care of the lawn, fertilizing with a good solid dose of the Word ... the best weed killer there is.