Wake up and smell the coffee!

I’m sitting outside of a coffee shop.  Wednesday was the first day of fall and today, a week later, it actually feels like it. It is cool, not humid.  And the sun warms you instead of cooking you.  I love fall.  So much.  I love the break from the intense summer heat, I love the festivals, I love the brilliant blue skies, I love the leaves falling from the trees.  The thing about fall on the coast is that most of the trees don’t lose their leaves.  I am sitting under a live oak and it looks just as full as it would in the middle of summer.   Live oaks do actually lose their leaves, but consistently through the year.  Hence the name, live because they always have leaves.  This live oak is big, which means in it’s many years the tree has gathered much spanish moss and resurrection fern, giving it a grand feel and appearance.

 

 

 

Resurrection fern, seen above in the forks of the tree, might be one of my favorite plants.  This plant gives the oak depth and beauty.  And provides a great spiritual parallel for how I am feeling today.  Resurrection fern, as the name implies, can seemingly be raised from the dead.  Water will make this plant come alive, the lack there of will leave it lifeless and panting for life.  I didn’t see this specific fern yesterday but today it is fully raised, almost pointing to the sky that brought the water and brought it back to life.  Because yesterday it rained.  A lot.  Today, like the fern, I too have been resurrected.   Not from the rain, but from the truth.  From waking up and looker deeper.  BIgger.

 

When I pulled up to the coffee shop, the sign that greeted me said “Wake up and smell the coffee.”  Clever.  But it was almost an invitation for me to wake up to all that was around me.  Since I have been home I have nestled into my bed weighted down by my fears and doubts.  I was sad to leave the Philippines.  Really sad.  But I am scared to go back.  Really scared.  There are many things to accomplish, much support to be raised, and I am ill equipped for the task.  So, I retreated into myself afraid of what is next.  But the longer I sat outside under this tree, the longer I saw life in that tree.  The resurrection fern and spanish moss invited life into that tree.  They can almost seem burdensome to the tree weighing heavy on the limbs but neither are parasitic, so they don’t harm the tree.  Instead, they invite life.  I realized that as I watched the cardinal, wren, and woodpecker take part in the life it offered.  I realized then, there is more to this.  I need to wake up from my slumber and see, really see, what is before me.  

 

It would be easy to pass this tree and simply call it a tree.  But there is more, so much more to it.  There is life happening.  I would have missed it had I continued to remain numb in my insecurities.  It is the same for my life.  I can remain numb to the obstacles before me, but like the moss and fern, they serve to offer greater things for the tree.  Perhaps it is the same for me.  I can continue to remain paralyzed by fear but if I look closer at the fear, what it is rooted in?  My own shortcomings.  My own insecurity.  That isn’t faith.  That certainly isn’t walking in the spirit that He has given me. A spirit of love. power. and sound mind.  When I clothe myself in those things, I am able to wake up and see things for what they are.  And they are so much bigger than I can ever imagine or dream.  No eye has seen.  No ear has hear.  No mind conceived. Perhaps, therein lies the fear.  The unknown. 

 

My first job when I graduated from college was an environmental educator.  I loved this job.  It is by far one of my favorite jobs and it is where I learned about the live oak.  Also, it is where I learned about one of my biggest fears.  Snakes.  I didn’t particularly care for them.  I thought, by appearance, that they were creepy and crawly and ew!  But my first day on the job, I found out that I was going to have to teach about these creatures.  And hold them.  And let children hold them, all the while being confident they weren’t going to devour me or the innocent children.  In order to teach effectively and to not show my cowardice on the first day of my new job, right out of college, I held the snake.  I did it through trembling hands and decided at that moment I would learn more about them.  With each nugget I learned about this creature, I became more and more unafraid.  Snakes were no longer unknown to me.  And so I had no reason to fear. 

 

My point is, I could have continued to look at that snake and be afraid of it.  But there was something more important than the fear.  Possibly my pride, who wants to be fired from their first job out of college?  But I got to teach kids about God’s creation.  It was more important to me than the “what if’s.”  I have plenty of “what if’s” wrapped around this vision in the Philippines.  What if I heard wrong?  What if it fails?  What if I can’t raise the suport?  What if I am not strong enough to help these young men?  But there is something more important than the fear, God’s love and making His name great.  There is a great quote in the movie Princess Diaries that talks about this very thing.  “Courage isn’t the absence of fear.  It is believing that something else is more important than fear.  The brave may not live forever but the cautious do not live at all.”  

 

Pastor Steven Furtick, in his book Sun Stand Still calls this audacious faith.  There have been many people throughout the Scriptures that consider God’s promises more important than fear, and they had great reasons to fear.  But they had even greater reasons for great faith, audacious faith.  A great God.  A God who is life and invites life.  A God who is trustworthy and faithful.  A God who doesn’t leave you or forsake you.  A God who loves you and wants the best for you.  But he explains, that you have to train your eyes to look for it.  You have to wake up and smell the coffee.  Faith through fear.  Security through doubt.  Both open your eyes to see the potential to serve God, who is already at work on your behalf. 

 

It isn’t just a tree. Oh no!  it is life.  It isn’t just mediocre existence we are invited to.  One heavy laden with fear.  Oh no!   It is life.  Abundant life.  I read the same pastor’s blog today and this is what I read:  “When we calculate God’s capabilities and limit God according to our logic, it insults His ability.  It confines an unlimited God.  You are not out of reach of God’s arm.  You are not the first to break the limits of God’s abilities.  Never forget that what seems impossible to us isn’t even remotely difficult for God.” 

 

So, wake up and smell the coffee.  It’s already brewing.  Take a deep breath and inhale the aroma!