[NicknamedBob]

I want to shoehorn a poem in here:

Just BE in The Vine.

I was talking about this very thing with one of my best friends last week. I’m just about to the point of subscribing to the idea that, if I’d JUST BE in The Vine; if I’d JUST focus on “First Commandment, First Place,” — if I’d just REMAIN, to use Jesus’ verb from John 15 — then all of the DOING I invest (waste?) so much time trying to make happen would be Divinely re-ordered, and the things that REALLY need to get done would actually flow naturally (and peacefully) out of my relationship to God, instead of being this forced mass of chaos that I keep cobbled together all over my mental calendar.

Here In God’s Garden

I’m here in God’s garden. I have my own place,
The good feelings it gives me, please! Never erase!
Not part of the flowers, nor am I a weed,
I’m less than a raindrop, but more than a seed.

I’m doing a job here, I know it is true,
I hold my position, as I’ve learned how to do.
I stand near to this wall, holding dirt at the base,
Prepared for the morning, and warmth that I face.

A rock in God’s garden, neither beauty nor waste,
But witness to miracles, I am blessed to be placed.
Over here near the wall, there’s a rise to the land,
I can see a good distance, and I like what He’s planned.

I’ve seen plantings and harvests, and beauty and tears,
I’d be happy to stay here for many more years,
But I go where I’m sent, and I do what I must,
I can skip over oceans, for in God do I trust.

NicknamedBob . . . . . September 27, 2005

In that context, Matthew 6:33 looms large on the page: "Focus on The Kingdom of God as you FIRST priority, and all of the temporal things you really need will come to you in due course."

[Silentgypsy]

You are the most together person!

[HKMk23]

[APPLAUSE] VERY well done, Sir. Well done, indeed.

Your excellent contribution advances the discourse in furtherance of our mutual edification, for no lesser a light than St. Peter has, himself, addressed your same subject:

4 Come to Him [then, to that] Living Stone which men tried and threw away, but which is chosen [and] precious in God’s sight.

5 [Come] and, like living stones, be yourselves built [into] a spiritual house, for a holy (dedicated, consecrated) priesthood, to offer up [those] spiritual sacrifices [that are] acceptable and pleasing to God through Jesus Christ.

6 For thus it stands in Scripture [ref. Is. 28:16]: Behold, I am laying in Zion a chosen (honored), precious chief Cornerstone, and he who believes in Him [who adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Him] shall never be disappointed or put to shame.
— II Peter 2:4-6 AMP

And so the metaphor of a stone also undergirds (as a foundation) our prior themes: of being (for a stone has no busyness; it simply is); and of maturity (for in a stone we find that which is "older than the hills").

[Monkey Face]

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear Nicknamedbob!
Happy Birthday to you!

*hug*