Apple vs Pear

This Monday has been an interesting Monday. It hasn't been bad, it's just been different from other Mondays.

This might be a good way to start off a Monday. I had a completely different routine than what I normally do. Maybe this is how you should start Mondays off? You do something completely different each Monday, so that it won't know how to trip you up (I'm talking like it's a bully or something, but let's be honest, IT IS!).

After a much needed relaxing morning this morning, I was able to drive into work with a pretty clear head. My thoughts were flowing in clear and beautifully this morning. I really love when this happens. I can almost feel each minute float by. Their not in a hurry. They just gently and slowly float their way by, give a little sweet hello and smile, then pass on to allow the next minute to have its 60 seconds of fame.

Time doesn't always present it's self like this to me often. Typically, it's rushing it's way by, too fast for me to even focus. Other times it moves like molasses, moving slowly, making a sticky mess on anything it touches.

But today, I actually enjoyed it. It was so sweet to me.

With my clear head this morning, I had an epiphany on my drive into work (seriously helped start my day off right).

I don't know how it hit me, maybe God just threw it into my head. I don't know but I guess it doesn't really matter.

I was looking at the trees on my drive to Soddy Daisy. The drive is beautiful up hwy 27, especially right now with the bright green leaves growing. They are so fresh, new, and bright. As I stared at the trees, the thought "be Christ-like" came to mind. I thought maybe this was based on a verse I have read before. I got on my bible app later and looked for the scripture that says to be Christ-like. The only scripture I could find just encourages your mind to be Christ-like.

But I know I've heard people talk about being Christ-like. What I've really observed the most over the years is that people especially want our actions to look Christ like, because somewhere along the way, we've been told that we are to be just.like.God.

I really think this is what trips most people up. It's like we're pear trees, looking at Christ, who is an apple tree, and we are trying to become APPLE TREES.

But we can't be apples, we were made as pears, beautifully delicious pears.

We work so hard to "be like Christ". We fill our heads with "if I were living a Christ like example, I should do this, I should have done that, I shouldn't have done that......" Should this, shouldn't that. 'Should' becomes debilitating. We become paralyzed and filled with shame. Instead of our pears growing, they start to rot, fall off. Next thing we know, parts of our tree is dying and we are in shambles because we don't understand why our work hasn't made us into an apple tree. Not only are we not apple trees, our tree is now dying!

GOD DID NOT CREATE US TO BE HIM. He created us to take on his character, for we are made in his image. He's not asking us to become apples, he wants us to be pears, he made us to be pears. All he wants us to do is watch how he takes care of himself, how he's able to make his tree full of big, juicy, delicious apples. He shows us how to prune ourselves to keep our growth. He shows us what we need to do incase a drought comes. He even shows us how to survive when the conditions of our environment are preventing us from growing and producing healthy fruit. He just wants us to watch, watch as he teaches how to take care of ourselves. We don't have to be apples, he doesn't expect us or want us to be apples, he wants us to be pears. He wants us to be a healthy pear tree producing as much beautiful fruit as we possibly can!