Bleak? Look again.

Recently, my husband and I were traveling back home from a family wedding through the utter flatness of southern Illinois.  The landscape is truly a manifestation of "on a clear day, you can see forever."

Pretty bleak, I thought.

And then, I realized, that through another's eyes, this flat seemingly empty barren expanse was anything than bleak.  A farmer sees the opportunity for growth, for his livelihood, fields just waiting to be planted and in his vision, a field ripe unto harvest.

And other seeds fell into good soil
and produced grain,
growing up
and increasing
and yielding thirtyfold
and sixtyfold
and a hundredfold.

                   Mark 4. 8

It is not just how you look at it,
but what you do with it,
and how you
 let God work through you.
He strategically positions us
in impossible places
                    for His purposes
                    and for His glory.

What I need
is not a change of circumstances,
a change of location,
        but a change of heart toward Him.
And then,
and then,
and then,
           God changes my vision
           for where He has placed me.
I see something different,
something deeper,
not just about the place,
            but about trusting Him.

We have moved a lot in my lifetime,
sometimes to places where I wondered
"Why in the world
would He have brought us here?"
But oh, through the years,
God reveals His faithfulness.
And I have been
         amazed by what He has done
and how blind I had been.

Bleak?  Look again.

Dig in.
Sow the Word.
Bring the love of Jesus there.