FIRST OF TWO PARTS:
Carrots are the smallest of seeds. So many of them fall from your hand at one time that it’s impossible not to find one carrot seed surrounded and sprouting in the midst of a half-dozen of its family members. Too many carrots in one place usually means stunted growth, lacking enough water or sun. As a result, not much of a carrot crop.
So the little seedlings need to be thinned out—mercilessly; relentlessly; continually all through the summer.
Mercilessly thin the plants … make an intervention … and only then will you get healthy carrots.
The photo above is me hefting part of my carrot crop from this past season. I pulled these out of the ground the day before Thanksgiving. A bit chilly, yes, but not bad for late November in Connecticut. Last year I was pulling carrots out of the soil while it was snowing.
Carrots are hardy little buggers.
Recovery—rescue from emotional trauma, from fear, from damaged and wounded hearts—is like growing carrots. The smallest seeds of hope and change can take root and grow. Like carrots, however, rescue becomes more difficult if there are too many competing things—lives, agendas, habits, addictions—trying to get into the same space at the same time. Our space of living—yours and mine— must be mercilessly, relentlessly, continually purged of those things that would kill us. Replaced by those things which give us life.
How does rescue overcome the past? How does recovery survive? How do we move from the old person to the new person? How do we find freedom?
Peter came up with a good plan. Check out the second letter of Peter in the Bible. Right up front, Peter carves a path to freedom. A seven-point plan to a new life.
2 Peter 1: 3-11 (NIV) “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these (His glory and goodness) He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith, goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
“Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
There is so much depth in these three paragraphs, perhaps too much to grasp at one reading. But here are three points to keep in mind:
First, it’s Jesus’ divine power that gives us everything we need to live and flourish. “Everything we need for a godly life.” Everything we need for rescue;
Second, it’s our responsibility, each of us, to fight for freedom. Jesus did His part. Now it’s up to us to do our part … to live out our rescue each day, every day, one day at a time. “… add to your faith …” ;
Third, it’s how each of us live our lives that confirms our “calling and election” . . . who we are.
So much good is possible in our lives because of these “very great and precious promises” given to us by Jesus Christ: We become children of God (through salvation); the Holy Spirit of God dwells within us, to help us on our road to rescue; and we take on the divine nature of eternal life. By these promises, by the precious blood of Jesus, we are redeemed and find new life. We are rescued.
But we must also do something to ensure our continued freedom. Mercilessly; relentlessly; continually follow Peter’s seven-step plan and live like carrots … underground, growing in strength.
When we grow “in increasing measure” in these seven virtues, adding to our faith goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love, there is a promised harvest of a new life.
Come back on New Year’s Day and find out how carrots grow. How freedom from past trauma is attained. And how a new life begins.
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