The responsibility of caring for a lawn is not a high priority for me.  Part of the reason for that is there has not been a lawn to care for.  Now there is and unfortunately, last year I did something that reflects great ignorance, on my part, in the field of lawn care.  I sprayed some Roundup weed killer directly on quite a few spots in our grass.  Most of you who read this will smile because you will know the result.  As I look out the window at what was a lush green patch of grass when we bought the house last July, now it looks like it has a disease!  Earlier this spring, we put some seed down in those spots but we haven't seen much result.  The concern, of course, is that the Roundup takes awhile to leach out of the soil.  I'm hoping to consult a 'lawn professional' today and maybe get some good advice.
Those patches of dead ground surrounded by lush green life look like a living illustration to me of the Church.  The Church is still God's chosen vehicle for communicating the life changing message of the gospel.  In spite of all it's faults and failures there is no plan B.  The lush green living grass that is there depicts to me the living Church.  The dry dead patches, depict both struggling and dying churches and those who have not yet been drawn to our Heavenly Father's great love for them.
Our Father is a God of redemption and it is Him and Him alone by the power of the Holy Spirit who brings life both to the Church and to those He is drawing to Himself.  We need that power as well and so each morning we ask the Holy Spirit to fill is again and empower us in big and small ways to bring a little bit of the kingdom of heaven down to kingdom of this earth.
Ephesians 3:14-21 is an amazing section of Paul's letter to the early Christians in Ephesus.  He prays for them, and us, that we might be "filled to the measure of all the fullness of God".  
What difference would it make in our lives today if we really felt full from all of the fullness of God?  I have to believe that those dead patches of grass would come back to life and that life would spill over into the lives of others.  May it be so for us today!!

Happy Mother's Day!!  I got thinking about my mom yesterday.  She has been enjoying her reward since December of 2001.  Wow!!  That seems like a long time ago.  A memorable transition took place in my relationship with her.  Driving home from Uncle Gene Jordan's memorial service--1991 I think--it occurred to me and saddened me that all kinds of nice things were said about someone after they were gone.  About this same time I had been re-reading a little book entitled, "Making Peace With Your Parents".  I realized that I still got irritated with my mom when she would remind me to put a hat on when it was cold outside.  Clearly, I had not yet made the transition to relating to her adult-to-adult rather than child-to-parent.  An 'ah-ha' moment flashed for me.  Almost at a moment in time, I began to see my mom in an entirely different light.  Certainly, she was not flawless.  But I began to see with greater clarity and appreciation her great qualities:  her COURAGE, she pretty much raised four children by herself.  Married off her only daughter and watched her oldest son go to Viet Nam in the same summer; her HOSPITALITY, she was a gracious and welcoming hostess (even when the Vikings were playing.  She was highly skilled at positioning herself with sound off on the TV able to see what was happening while entertaining Sunday guests.)  She had friends all over the country.  Her Christmas mailing list was somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 people.  Many people have told me personally how welcome she made them feel in her home; her GENEROSITY, with her limited financial resources but also with her home and with her time.  She mentored young moms and volunteered in youth programs at her church.
Her memorial service truly was a celebration of her life, attended by a wide variety of ages from children who she had been with in the youth program, to those young moms she mentored, to her peers.  She was 78 when she took her last breath of this earth's air.
Earlier, I referenced the drive home from Uncle Gene Jordan's memorial service.  That night in St. Paul was the beginning of the transition of my relationship with my mom.  I began to tell her then how much I appreciated her.  Thankfully, ten years remained in her life for us to foster an adult-to-adult relationship.  It wasn't perfect.  But it was pretty much all right!