Walk Past My Vineyard

Bronchitis, intestinal ulcers, and a skin rash (unrelated to the manicure) are my excuses for not blogging for over two weeks. The recent past has been a mesh of minor miseries and yet, I find myself in good spirits. Even the appalling realization that somehow the 80's infiltrated the world of fashion while I've been gone, failed to plummet me into despair. Alison came back from two weeks in Costa Rice with current magazines in tow. Sweater dresses, polka dots, tights under shorts, and tapered pants filled page after page. Forgive me if upon my return I fail to aclimatize to a climate of fashion that I left twenty years ago.

Sickness has been a part of my regime as of late. In the midst of endoscopies and dropping off 'samples' of bodily excretions, I also managed to forget my VISA card in a bank machine and my camera disappeared. This is not meant to be an invitation to a pity party held in honour of Marcee. In fact, all of this has truly been character building. Each time a bomb dropped was an opportunity to not get worked up and stressed. The card and camera were just things...things of value, but certainly replaceable. My poor health has been cause to ask this question,"How closely connected are spiritual and physical health?"

Sometimes, a lot of times, I think that full time ministry is the worst thing for my spiritual health. Prayer with others and discussion of Christ occur frequently through out the day, but personal discipline in the areas of intercession and Bible study decline the more involved I am with the work at hand. Life has been very 'involved' as of late.

Contemplating the extent to which the spiritual and the physical are attached, I read from Proverbs 24:30-34:

I went past the field of the sluggard

past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment;

thorns had come up everywhere,

the ground was covered with weeds,

and the stone wall was in ruins.

I applied my heart to what I observed

and learned a lesson from what I saw:

A little sleep, a little slumber,

a little folding of the hands to rest-

and poverty will come on you like a bandit

and scarcity like an armed man.

I know that I have been a spiritual sluggard and I've lacked judgment in how I spend my time. To risk a cliche, I get so involved in the work of the Lord, that I neglect the Lord of the work. Thorns have been coming up and around this branch of Christ and in effect, the spiritual wall that hems me in and protects me, is in ruins. I've chosen to fold my hands in rest instead of prayer and opted to sleep instead of seek. Applying my heart to what I read and learning a lesson from what I'm seeing in my life, I believe that the physical and the spiritual are one and the same. Nothing occurs in the one without having effect in the other. Poverty of health came upon me and scarcity of insight beseiged me.

Still, peace and contentment reign in me. Nothing can separate me from the love that is mine in Christ Jesus my Lord...he loves me still...even if I wear a big-buckled belt over a polka-dot shirt with tapered jeans and a banana clip to boot.