"Got the right tool?"

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So all of this snow falls that I don’t believe in which covers our farm and the power goes out, but we find a higher power source and then trees fall because they’re weak from what’s eating them.

Of course the trees just lay there in the yard, not volunteering to cut and clean themselves up. Our yellow Labrador retrievers love them down, because they can play “fort” among the branches. (You do remember that game as a kid, right?) They weave in and out and chase each other through the fallen branches, having the time of their life; loving the snow and the trees.

So since the trees weren’t removing themselves and the Labs wouldn’t help either, I picked up my chainsaw and started cutting up the downed trees. I started with the smaller, outlying branches and worked my way up the trunk.

Pretty quickly I discovered that my chainsaw was too small to cut up the large branches and trunk. I remembered that it takes the right tools for the job.

When you get outmatched by your life’s challenges today, remember you have the right tool—God—right there with you to help you make a life.

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"What's eating you?"

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So all of this snow falls that I don’t believe in which covers our farm and the power goes out, but we find a higher power source. Well, something else happened also that inspired me to listen to life some more.

We have two 35-40 foot tall maple trees in our backyard. They appeared healthy enough and had actually begun to sprout, letting us know spring was coming.

The snow that fell was a heavy, wet snow that clung to the maple trees’ branches. They couldn’t stand the additional weight on their branches. One tree fared okay, just losing two really large branches. The other maple, however, split virtually all the way down its trunk.

I looked inside of the tree which is now exposed and discovered that a blight has weakened the tree and some bugs had moved into the blighted part. The tree looked healthy, but the pressure of the snow’s weight revealed it wasn’t.

The pressure of life’s weight is heavy on most of us these days. How are you inside, in your spirit? Blighted and bugged? Or, blessed and unbreakable?

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"How flexible are you?"

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So this larger-than-average snowfall happens whether I believe it will or not, blanketing our farm like God’s grace does life. All of a sudden, the power goes out. And doesn’t just blink. It stays off.

“Daddy, how long will it be out?” our daughter asks. “Shouldn’t you turn the gas logs on?”

“I don’t know,” I say. “And not while the house is still warm because we don’t know how long it will be out.” I knew the temperature was to drop to the teens that night and I couldn’t remember the last time the tank was filled.

“What are we going to eat?” she wants to know.

Quickly I thought of something that didn’t require defrosting and I could cook on the grill outside. “How about we have a cook-out with hot dogs? And I can warm the left-over macaroni and cheese in a pan on the grill!” She thought that sounded great so that’s what we had.

Amazing how quickly life changes, isn’t it? And your power gives out? And how flexible you can be in finding another source of power, like God?

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"Are you covered?"

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Yesterday I told you about this snow that I didn’t believe was coming. But it came anyway…all ten inches of it on our farm.

I stood in my office, looking out across the rolling hills around us. The snow covered them all from top to bottom. I gazed out across the pastures and they were covered with snow from fence line to fence line. I knew where some rocks were sitting, up the mountain behind us. I couldn’t see them. The snow blanketed them completely.

Isn’t it amazing how when snow falls, it covers everything? And so completely? So thoroughly that you can hardly tell what’s underneath it. All you see is snow.

So I’m standing there, looking out across our farm, listening to life, when the thought occurs to me, “The snow blankets the farm just like God’s grace covers my life.”

Yes, like the farm, life is full of different terrains and rocks and soils. God’s grace blankets even the rough places of life. Look for it as you listen to life and make a life, not just a living.

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"What do you believe?"

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The weather forecast earlier this month called for snow. Lots of snow. I said to a friend, “It seems like every time they call for a lot of snow, we get none. And when they forecast a dusting, we get a lot. I’ll believe it when I see all that snow they’re predicting.”

The next day it started snowing and it didn’t stop until we had about ten inches on our farm. And I didn’t believe it would snow. I didn’t trust the forecast.

We choose what to believe, don’t we? I had a choice about whether to believe it would snow or not. But snow happens, doesn’t it? Regardless of my choice of whether or not to believe it.

You can choose not to believe in gravity if you want and jump off of a 30-story building. And it just might occur to you on the way down that your belief was misplaced.

I heard someone say once that he lived his life believing in God, because it had to be better than not believing, and getting it wrong.

Listen to your life and make a life today, believing in God.

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