Sproutin' in the Drought

How easy it is to be anxious. Easier than relaxing, trusting, charging ahead. Anxiety stops us in our tracks, hijacking our thoughts, plans, progress. Sometimes I have gone from one anxious mountaintop to the next, barely pausing between them. No sooner than one crisis is resolved and the next one rears its ugly head. But does it? One woman's crisis is the next woman's joy. 

I want to be free. There are lots of opinions about what that is. The conflicted teenager might think it means having no rules to follow. The struggling family might think it's having lots of money. A weary mother might believe it's having her young 'uns grown and out of the nest. I believe that true freedom is a place of rest, contentment and purpose, within all the hurry. 

There's always something over the crest of the hill that might solve our problems. But I'm not living on that other side. I'm here on this side, where each day is either an opportunity or a liability to be dealt with. I think we tell ourselves all kinds of lies. It's our nature to make a mountain out of a molehill. I've heard that expression all of my life, but have only recently seen what moles make out of dirt. My yard is teeming with molehills and the little holes that can trip you up in between. 
I find I'm not interested in spending my life imaginating up a mountain out of one of those. Life is too short to spend it worrying, fussing, fighting, waking up in the middle of the night coming up with scenarios that may or may not come true. It's also too short to let my mouth run like a sieve. Gossip and critical talk shortchange my religion, making it in vain. Lord I am guilty. Lord, please forgive me, and let Your Spirit lead, not my easy-tell-all nature. 

As I turn to His Word, praying, asking for wisdom, He's got it all there. It has the answers and the peace that passes all understanding... "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit." Jeremiah 17:7-8.  So cast off those worries and get sproutin'.