Step Away from the Rut!

Since returning home from vacation, I have felt thwarted in my every effort to get back to my normal workday routine. I actually slept till 6 this morning! Egad! Stumbling into the kitchen to make coffee I became aware that most of my joints were revolting and refusing to work properly. Pain greeted me before my eyes were completely open. I felt like the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz when he needed someone to rush in with the oil can! The fog in my head was thick and the very thought of trying to string words together to make whole sentences seemed ludicrous. Still, I pushed on, coffee cup in hand, with my Bible reading. However, no divine 'holy tap on the shoulder' was forthcoming this morning! No direction from the Lord this morning reaffirmed my 'out of whack-ness'. I said a little prayer asking God to help me get my 'groove on' so I could be productive. He responded quickly. His message…'Grooves become ruts.' Hmmm… where are you taking this, Lord?

I looked up the definition for both groove and rut; …to no surprise, they had identical definitions. Was God trying to tell me I was in a rut with my normal routine? He was leading me to share this tidbit so I stopped and waited for Him to reveal where I was to go with it. By now, it was light enough to see, so I ventured out to water what is left of my garden. Some of the best talks I've had with God were in the garden. I knew enough to know I was getting nowhere on my own and this would have to come from Him or not at all.

My attention kept traveling back to the fig tree. This is the third summer of this particular fig tree, a record since most die out quickly here. We live on a rock hill that produces many weeds and baby rocks but is not so great for fruit trees. This is the 5^th fig tree I've planted and the only one alive. In fact, I've thought this tree died three different times now and decided I was not going to waste anymore valuable water on it. The tree looked dead as early as spring a year ago; the lack of life all last growing season only plagued my saddened heart. Yet, I never pulled it up for some reason, just left it as a reminder not to plant any more fig trees. When it started putting on leaves this spring, I was shocked. Still, I was determined not going to get invested in this tree because it seemed only a matter of time before it died…again. In fact, I told God that He was on His own with this tree; if He wanted it to live He would have to do all the watering, I was keeping my hands off. Like He needed my help anyway. Silly woman!

Wow, ruts and fig trees….what a combination! See why I leave it to God, what could I do with that? Fig trees have significant emotional meaning to me and having one in my home turf is important for me. That's a story for another day but what was God showing me this morning? His message said, "Grooves become ruts" and yet I could not shake the feeling that this was somehow connected to the fig tree.

Then it hit me, I have allowed my efforts in writing, like tending my garden, to become so routine I felt I was not functioning properly if I didn't follow my routine. I did things in a certain order and felt frustrated if that routine was deviated in the least. Getting 'my groove' back would simply throw me back into my rut, not allowing for fresh insight and vision. One of the prayers over us in New Mexico was that we find a fresh anointing, a new vision and spiritual refreshing…yet here I was fighting to get back into the old rut, the familiar. The fig tree was thriving under God's care without so much as one watering from me all season. It was as if God was showing me that my efforts were stagnant and stale, yet left to Him, would thrive. I do listen for His direction, yet I take it and cram it into the rut with me! You can't keep God in a box or rut or routine! He is freedom, He is liberty, and He is creation and life itself!

Biblically speaking, I was trying to force the new wine into the old wine skin. Luke 5:37-38 (NASB) 37"And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. 38"But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.

In the first century, wineskins would have been made of goatskin or sheepskin taken from the neck area of the animal (Gen 21:14-15; 19; Ps 119:83). The result of putting new wine into old skins would be disaster, a tragic waste of wine. The new wine would ferment and cause the old wineskins to burst--the new wine would then be lost and the wineskin rendered useless. YEP, I believe that God was not allowing me to jump back into my rut (old wineskin) because it simply was not sufficient to carry the new wine of fresh anointing! I'm excited now and can not wait to see what He has in store. Check for ruts in your own life; they may be holding you back, too.