Reflections and Responses

It took longer than usual for me to fall asleep last night. I don't know what exactly kept me awake - the buzz of the Braves game John was watching in the living room, or me dreading my exercise class in the morning, or what - but my mind began wandering. I was reminded of a stage I went through in the fourth grade. I would wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to fall asleep every single night for what seemed like months. Every time this happened, I would creep across the hall and stand at the foot of my parents' bed and announce that I couldn't sleep. Eventually, my parents set up all kinds of activities near my bed to help me get back to sleep. I remember reading "chapter books" and listening to Seal's "Kissed by a Rose" on my boxy black CD player in the middle of the night, hoping that these soothing activities would do the trick. Usually they did. Eventually my parents confronted me gently and said that I really didn't need to c...

"Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near." James 5:7-8 I have never thought much about farming. Growing up in the suburbs and now living in a city, farming is not really on my radar (except for the annual flower beds my parents planted - but those involved planting existing blooms, not seeds that needed time to sprout). Now that I think about it, farming requires more patience than most professions. Farmers wait literally months, sometimes close to a year, to reap benefits from their labor. In our instanteous, drive-through, multi-tasking world, months = a VERY long time. My job requires a lot of time on the computer, and I become impatient when it takes more than five seconds (literally) for my Internet browser to load! Farmers take the cake for patience. Are you wait...