The Fig Tree

The fig tree, the withered fig tree, has me puzzled. I asked about it on facebook. One of my college professors, Mark Wenger, responded as I had a feeling he would.
What he said:
1. Fig trees leaf in season, not before it. Like the magnolia doesn't tell us that summer is coming. It tells us that summer is indeed here.
2. The context of the story is that at the temple, Jesus was rejected by the religious leaders and accepted by the poor.
3. Unripe figs were for the poor to partake of. In fact Bethpage means "house of unripe figs."
4. The next context is that the disciples afterward ask for signs of the end of the age. They asked when the end would come.

Put it all together:
The fig tree is telling us that it is the end of the age. It is not coming but is here. The tree is symbolic of lack of fruit for the needy. Our job then is to produce fruit for the poor or be cursed.

As I pondered this, I still could not reconcile this explanation with Jesus' application in Mark 11. He says if we have even a small amount of faith, we can tell the mountain to be thrown into the sea and it will be. He then says that we should forgive our brother so that God will forgive us. God spoke to me through this meditation process. Could it be that faith and forgiveness aren't as much the fruit we should produce, but the soil in which fruit grows. They are the precursors to fruit.

Christians are like leafy fig trees. Where there is leaf there should be fruit, even if it is unripened. Lack of faith and unforgiveness will hinder that fruit from growing. Like the religious leaders in Jesus' time. They couldn't believe that Jesus was who He said He was, and they couldn't forgive the attention He stole from them. They were like fig trees with no figs. Many Christians today also have no fruit, not even unripened fruit, because of their lack of faith and lack of forgiveness. Lord please help me believe and help me forgive.

The Speech Every Boy Needs to Hear about Being a Man

"Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things that a man needs to believe in the most.
That people are basically good. That honor, courage, and virtue mean everything. That power and money, money and power mean nothing. That good always triumphs over evil. I want you to remember this, that love, true love never dies. You remember that boy...It doesn't matter if it is true or not. You see a man should believe in those things because those are the things worth believing in." That's just a piece of the speech, just a piece.

Second Hand Lions is one of my favorite movies. It weaves a fantastic story. But this little speech, hit home today. These things are worth believing. I have to add the spiritual element in there, too though. God is good. He is not safe, but He is good. He has a plan for me. His plan is good. Honor, courage, and virtue mean everything because those are the characteristics of my good and unsafe God. His love will never die. Those things are worth believing.

Today, my heart needs to believe in this God who is bigger than I am. Today this is worth believing in.

Into the Sky

Hey Jesus, are you still on the cross
or are you feeling better?

Hey Jesus, will you come play with me?
Im ready and willing.

Won't you come...
down, down, down, down to the ground.
To the next to me place
with a smile on my face
and a song in my ear

Around
and around
and around
and around
and around we go

Hey Jesus, when I wave at you
do you wave back too?
Hey Jesus, when I'm feeling sad
do you feel sad too?

Won't you come 
down, down, down, down to the ground.
To the next to me place
with a smile on my face
and a song in my ear


Hey Jesus, if we throw these books
do you think they will fly?
Hey Jesus, can I touch the moon
throw me into the sky

And then I'll come....

down, down, down, down to the ground.
To the next to me place
with a smile on my face
and a song in my ear

Into the sea
Into the sea
Around and around
Around and around
Around we go...

Around
and around
and around
and around
and around we go


-Jason Upton
Beautiful People

Everything You Do

Everything You do I want to do with You
'Cause doing things with You it makes me happy
Everything You say I want to say it too
'Cause even when I say it wrong we just start laughing 
Merciful Father learning to trust You love me the way that I am
My simple desire to help You means more to You than whether I really can

-Jason Upton

Beautiful People 

Something amazing just happened!

I came to a coffee shop this afternoon. I ordered a hot chocolate, which came loaded with whip cream and chocolate syrup drizzled on top. This is something that in a former life I loved, and would down. I say a former life because for the last two months I have had hardly no sugar. While this sounds like a diet fad, it has been so much more than that for me. See, food has been something I have hidden behind. It has been a source of sin, a source of idolatry. Recently God invited me to come out of hiding. I feel for the last several years and then ramped up in the last two months, God has been peeling me like an onion. He has not sliced me open, but more pulled back layer at a time of things that don't jive with who he is. He has stripped me, layer by layer of my hiding spots: having to have everything all together, my wardrobe, my need to be needed, and now food (particularly sugar). At each layer, he has paused before hand and given me a choice, "Are you ready for me to pull this one back?" While I have hesitated at the oncoming pain, I have given him permission at each turn.

Now, I can confidently say that I am on the verge of the greatest intimacy I have ever had with the Lord and I believe it is coming because these layers are being removed. Today, I ordered my hot chocolate, a symbol of the slavery I once lived in. Tears came to my eyes as I drank half the cup of hot chocolate and was done. I didn't want any more. I enjoyed the little bit I had, but then put it aside and am done. The full cup of hot chocolate was a symbol of my enslavement. The half empty cup of hot chocolate is a symbol of my freedom. I can't even express the contentment and joy that is welling up inside me. I am a loved child of God. Oh how good he is that he can bring good news for the poor, healing for the brokenhearted, freedom for captives, open prison gates for the bound, comfort for those who mourn, beauty for ashes, oil of joy for mourning, garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness. He has called me an oak of righteousness, a planting of the Lord, for the display of His glory.

I don't deserve a love like this, but I receive it. Today I rejoice over my half drunk cup of hot chocolate!

A picture of Grace

I'm watching The Mission. This movie has the best picture of grace I have ever seen. Rodrigo Mendoza is a Spanish mercenary, slave trader and murder in South America. He killed native indians and sold hundreds into slavery. One day in a rage he killed his own brother.

A priest asks him if he has the courage work out his penance. He chooses as his method of suffering toward repentance to carry his own armor tied behind him, up the mountain amid steep waterfalls. For miles, he trudges falling beneath his load. Finally, he and a group of priests make up the waterfall where he is faced with the violent tribe of indians from whom he stole, enslaved and killed.

A young indian man runs up to him with his weapon drawn and anger in his face. With his knife at Rodrigo's throat, the man suddenly changes. He moves his knife away from the vulnerable spot between life and death. He moves his knife to the rope tying this man to his slavery, to his armor. He cuts the rope and sends the armor sailing into the river. Rodrigo weeps as the community comes around him and embraces him.

The ones who had suffered the most at the hands of this man, were the ones who offered life, hope, grace, when they could have given death. GRACE! this is truly a picture of grace.