Death and resurrection

I'm not somebody that likes big changes.

I've been in the Bay Area for two-thirds of my life. I have yet to voluntarily change jobs (got laid off once). I only had one girlfriend, who is now my wife. Even traveling tends to stress me out at the beginning due to the preparation required and the tying up of loose ends needed.

Lately, God has been impressing upon me this principle: Something has to die before it can be resurrected.

Put another way by a friend: God doesn't pour new wine into old wineskins (Matthew 9:17).

Meditating on these verses lately:

John 12:24 - I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

Luke 13:6-9 - Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?'

" 'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.' "

Tomorrow, Shally and I will be on our way to the land down under, the largest natural structure that can be seen from space, and Middle-Earth (aka Sydney, the Great Barrier Reef, and the South Island of New Zealand) for three weeks - by my memory, the second longest time I'll have been away from home.

We'll be spending one of the weeks surrounded by scenery like this:



I'm hoping for a good time of rest, reflection, and renewal. When we get back, there are likely more changes in store in our lives, more dying that needs to be done, perhaps some working of the soil, before life can come again.

Will write again upon our return.