Where Do You Thrive?

Well it seems as if COVID will never go away. It has been 28 months since Covid-19 and we are now approaching round three, and round four with no sign of letting up. Now more than ever we need a place of fertile soil to gain strength from life many difficulties, and support one another. 

I am reminded of the Sunday School Teacher who decided to share with his class this valuable lesson of worship:

The teacher brought four jars to church, one filled with alcohol, one filled with cigarette smoke, one filled with chocolate, and one filled with soil.

The teacher explained how when we worship our eyes, thoughts and whole being should be focused on GOD. The alcohol, smoke, and chocolate represented the world, and the soil represented the fertile fellowship of Christ. Next, the teacher placed a few worms in each jar and asked the class to return after worship and said “we'll see which jar is thriving.”

After worship the class returned and examined each jar. The worms in the jars with the alcohol, cigarette smoke, and chocolate were dead while the worms in the jar of fertile soil were alive and well. The teacher asks the class what they've learned. One student promptly raises his hand and says, “well if I drink, smoke, and eat chocolate I won't have worms.”

Not exactly the lesson the Teacher intended to impart.

In order to have growth we must be in fertile soil. I enjoy attending the Lodge, but a Lodge is not, and was never intended to be a place of growth. A lodge is an assemblage of Masons teaching moral lessons. Growth comes from study and application. I have seen all of the First, Second, and Third Degrees I ever care to witness. I attend Lodge for fellowship, not growth. Spiritual Growth comes from active participation in your house of worship. Everyone worships something or someone. We are all controlled by the lord of our life. That thing you focus on, dream of, and long for that is your lord. What is the desire of your heart…because that is what you are worshiping. Status, power, wealth, or pleasure, the thing which controls your mind is your lord. Everyone is and forever will be controlled by your lord, because that is what you are worshiping. When we put GOD first and truly worship we will receive healing, growth, and change which brings eternal happiness to our lives. This is why the worship of GOD is transforming. Each act of worship places our eyes, and heart back on the things of GOD. This prompted me to thinking about how life's challenges, misfortunes, will always result in growth. I am reminded of the woman who was cast at Jesus feet to ridicule her and trap Jesus.

Consider, the words from the preacher from Nazareth.

“At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.  The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”  They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.” John 8:2-6

Now, with the woman's life hanging in the balance, Jesus tips the scale and exposes the sin in us all. Each accuser becomes acutely aware of their own sin. Lowering their heads in shame, they walked away knowing they too, deserved to be stoned. Next, Jesus asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” Matthew 8:10-11

 As I reflected on life and how there are some many being accused, ridiculed, and ostracized. It was then I understood how the woman must have felt. She had feelings of despair, dejection, and being desolate. Next, I thought how the pain of the past was healing and now her whole life lay ahead...like a precocious pearl. Therefore, I sat down and wrote the following poem entitled The Peral.

                                                             

The Pearl 

 

When you least expect it, suffering will arrive

By false splendid trappings fixed on malice

These caviling cohorts who suckle and thrive

In attacks by callow foes, contrive, and callus

 

Desperate to capture an instance of peace

Raging against the tempest of helplessness

Of insipid shadows which insistently increase

By the age-old battle of sin, and righteousness

 

Thru Grace today, or Resurrection morning

One day the hurt, pain, and guilt will subside

Revealing over time a pearl confirming

Grace was always there growing inside

 

In mirth, and mourning our trials shall bring

Whisperings on the winds of time rising

To have Faith, and let go of the former things

For the hurt was merely a pearl in the making

 

Now sanctified, and freed the pain has ceased

For Grace has healed the scares of the past

By tears of freedom watering seeds of peace

Blooming into a heart forgiving the vast

 

By a life abounding with blessing’s flow

Where the Righteous shine forth their faces

Behold, how Grace like pearls often grow

In the darkest, and direst of places

 

Into a testimony never covered in shame

Yes, the Father is patiently waiting the tide

To harvest The Pearl, you became

 Where JESUS Blood has Justified!

 

Sola Gratia

 

Jay Adam Pearson

Brethren, attend Lodge for Fellowship, if you desire growth you must be planted in fertile soil, not the ways of the world. I hope, indeed I pray each of you will seek lessons learned form the past and apply those lessons to the path ahead.

“The pains of the past are pearls in the making!” SDGJAP