My Unexpected Surprise

Have you ever taken on a challenge that was bigger than you are?  I am facing some in several different directions presently.  It isn't that the tasks are hard...it is just that I can't see the outcome yet.  Aren't we like that?  If only we could see the end result of what we are doing, we might volunteer more often.  If we could know that what we do will make a difference somewhere down the line, through the ages, even if only in the next few moments...but no. Fellow glory-seekers, we do not get to choose the job according to the outcome. Actually we may fail big time.  We may fall on our faces in total disgrace.  We may be laughed at, scorned, ridiculed, mocked, labelled a loser...hey, I know Someone that went through all of that, and more.  The people He was sent to minister to rejected Who He was. I am no one, but I have that Someone living inside me. I will take my chances with Him.
In my former post, "Just Another Day", I told you I was going to work in my yard (yawn) and that something unexpected was surely just around the corner.  It was...I just did not see it until today.  My patio was a mess with all the wind storms we have had in the past couple of months and the kids had done chalk drawings on the concrete. After hosing things down and cleaning out pots, I pulled up unwanted weeds and put them in a big garbage bag. I left it on the patio for my big strong husband to take out to the curb come trash day. Today as I was thinking about my challenges, I looked out to see the most pleasant and unexpected surprise on my patio. There in the trash that I was going to chunk, was a dead coleus plant, giving bloom to the brightest red leaves.  They were poking up from the bag and it was such a picture of joy that I had to go and rescue them.  They are the ones in the picture.
Isn't that what we are?  Dead coleus plants that life discards...until the rays of the sun (Son) touch us and we live.  We live to face the challenges He gives us.  He gave us new life, so that we might rise above the trash around us and be beautiful...to Him.  The fact that these leaves were brightest red means something perhaps only to me.  Thank you, Lord.

So keep your eyes on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. Trust Him to see the path ahead and to chasten you into the right attitude.  Just keep obeying, one challenge at a time.