Tumbling Tumbleweeds

Summer is almost over…is your heart starting to beat a little faster? I know that mine is…

Jackson started Mother’s Day Out yesterday. This meant I had to go looking for “school supplies,” and THE Disney Cars backpack. I love Fall, but as the years pass, this season seems to get busier and busier.

Unfortunately, the less I rest, the more self sufficient I become. The more I am ” blown around” by the pace of my life.

I don’t want to be like a tumbleweed. I do not want to miss my one degrees …

So, as Fall is approaching, I have asked my friend, Dawn Aldrich, to share some of her wisdom with you today. She has been doing a series of posts straight from the Old Testament book of Jeremiah. I know you will be blessed by her heart. Here’s Dawn…

Are You a Tumbling Tumbleweed?

 

“Blessed is the man who trusts me, God, the woman who sticks with God. They’re like trees replanted in Eden, putting down roots near the rivers…” Jeremiah 17:7-8a (The Message)

 

One by one, cool mornings gather – sneaking between our flip-flopped days. Summer scorched edges line the garden beds and pile beneath the trees. Back-to-school bargains fill our closets and drawers. We trade loose cottons for warm wools and bare toes for socked feet.

 

I think of all those lazy, carefree summer days gone by as autumn rushes in, clutters the ground and my calendar. Busyness pushes her way into every day, overrunning God’s presence – threatening soul death.

 

God describes self sufficient, busy people as tumbleweeds in the desert – roaming aimlessly with no roots. But…

God restores soul life

 

Those who trust in Him – stick with Him – they are like trees replanted in Eden (paradise), rooted near rivers – “Never a worry through the hottest of summers, never dropping a leaf, serene and calm through droughts, bearing fresh fruit every season.” Jeremiah 17:8b (The Message)

 

I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather be a strong tree, rooted in paradise, planted near living water, serene and calm, bearing much fruit, than an aimless, tumbling tumbleweed in the hottest desert.

 

How?

 

• God replants us in paradise. Sin uproots our relationship with God, like in the Garden of Eden. But Jesus came to restore that relationship through His death and resurrection. Romans 10:9 says, “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

 

• God supplies us with living water. Like trees, our souls need living water to flourish and grow deep roots. Throughout Scripture, God refers to Himself as the spring of living water. If we stay rooted in Him by reading His Word, (the Bible) and learn to abide in Him – listen, pray, worship, we cannot help but thrive, flourish and bear fruit. God is our source of life.

 

• God requires we rest and worship. Even God rested. At the end of creation, He looked around at all His work and said, “It is good” and then, He rested. He saw how good rest was and He required it of us: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy” Exodus 20:8. It was still important to God in Jeremiah’s time:

 

            “‘This is God’s Message. Be careful, if you care about your lives, not to desecrate the Sabbath by turning it into just another workday, lugging stuff here and there. Don’t use the Sabbath to do business as usual. Keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your ancestors’ ”

Jeremiah 17:21-22 (The Message)

 

As autumn approaches and our 24:7:365 worlds start uprooting us, let’s be mindful to keep our souls rooted near the spring of living water where soul-life flourishes in perfect rhythm between work, worship, and rest.

 

©Dawn Aldrich 2012

 

 

Bio: Dawn Aldrich lives in southern Connecticut where she is a wife, mother of 2, grandmother of 2, children’s author, blogger, and co-host of a new local children’s show called Penn’s Pals. Her mind tricks her into thinking she’s twenty so she embarked on a new career in her late forties and hasn’t looked back once! Dawn loves connecting with new people and welcomes you to her neck of the woods, anytime: http://blog.DawnAldrich.com, http://www.DawnAldrich.com , http://www.facebook.com/DawnAldrich.Author, or Twitter @DawnAldrich.