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Thursday, October 8, 2009

A wine digression

Still in search of an inventory that's going to tell me my next step. Ha! (This is sounding like a midlife crisis.) Seriously, I do believe an inventory of my "gifts" might give some direction...help me understand the ph balance of my "soil" better. Let me explain.
A teacher recently explained I Cor. 7: 1-16 to me in a way that made sense by using the wine industry as a metaphor. Europe has a rich history of great wine. Decades ago, folks in the Napa Valley region of Northern California decided they could start the same great wine-making tradition there. University scientists tried to adjust the content of the soil to imitate that of the great European vineyards. It didn't work. But when the Napa Valley growers stopped manipulating the soil and started growing what would readily work on their land, then they had some great wine. Different than Europe, but great anyway. (By some experts standards, but I digress....)
Anyway...the idea is that God can still grow something quite good on my "land" without me manipulating the hell out of it. If I can be satisfied that God gave me enough and that He is using it and will use it for something...something...then that's a whole different way of being ambitious. It may not be flashy or "important" or high-paying (or maybe it will!) But there will be purpose and fruit and it'll be good fruit if I can stop messing with it (picking it too early, ignoring the pests, feeding it the wrong stuff...) It might be that I'm a delicious table wine or that I'm a rare, expensive bottle of Moet Chandon. I need (okay, want) both equally, they're just assigned to different occasions. That's the point. God knows what He's doing...we can't all be assigned to the wedding feast. Who would have the family dinner duty?
In this I Cor. passage, Paul seems to say that neither ambition counts for anything, nor lack of ambition counts for anything, only faith working out in love. So I'm asking God to show me what grows in my little garden and help me enjoy (vs. envy) what other gardens grow and maybe the peace that comes from that will be contagious. Certainly there will be blessings amidst the pruning. And to that I say "Cheers" (and pour me another please!)

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