Last week I planted some small trees in our backyard. As I plunged the shovel into the ground, the first five inches came up easily. It was moist, dark and fertile. However, the next thrust of the shovel hit this brittle, grey clay that was as dry as it was hard. I thought, "Nothing can grow in this."
The devotional speaks to the gift of water in establishing the root system that goes deep. I think too often we do enough to keep the first five inches of our spiritual soil fertile and moist. But if you scratch a little further below the surface, if you take one more swipe with the shovel, you find that it gets pretty hard and dry.
The success of the Master's Plan in making a deep impact not only for CLC but for the community will come from how deeply those spiritual roots of ours can go. I hope that this time set aside for daily devotions will not be short lived, only watering the first five inches. It will need more time. And we will all find, over time, through constant, gentle watering, that it will seep further down and slowly begin to soften that hard, dry heart of ours, transforming it into fertile soil.
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I have been spending time with the devotionals for the past several weeks, but this is the first time I ventured onto the blog page. Wow, I've missed lots of wonderful thought provoking messages. Thanks for these additional words to study and consider. Thanks also for providing this devotional series. While I realize it is designed to prepare us for addressing the Master's Plan, I have found it to be a wonderful guide in my personal daily preparation...much better than the devotional guides I usually select for myself. I find myself looking forward to turning the computer on in the morning to see what "nuggets of gold" have been left for me as I slept through the night. As noted in the devotional for October 15, I hope this might be something that could be carried on beyond the Master's Plan campaign. When you think about it, I'm pretty sure that a good daily devotional is very much a part of the Master's Plan.
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