Manure

It stinks. No one wants to touch it or go near it. It sticks to your shoe. No one wants that on there. Manure is crap. Plain and simple. Crap. No one likes it.

Why am I gone forever and then come back and write about manure?

Because I heard a good point in our sermon yesterday.

"Fruit grows in manure".

Stop and think about that for a second. Farmers use manure to help fruit and other life giving substances to grow. Even cow corn is life giving, for the cows. The manure helps it to grow. Does the food taste like shit? No. It has a wonderful taste. The fruit just bursts with wonderful texture and taste.

Now think about it figuratively.
We all go through shit in our lives. We don't like it. It is hard. It stinks. It is sticky and discouraging. It is a low part and it makes you feel stuck.

As we continue to go through the manure that we are in we grow. We learn to turn to Jesus. The Farmer that will help us grow and strengthen us through the crap. We come out of the other side ripe.

Crap stinks. I, like many others, have been through crap. But I can sit and look at it after and see how God has pulled me through the stink. He pulled me and pruned me and helped me to grow through the situation and got me to the point where I was fruitful to share about Him. It being only Him that could pull me through I can share my experience and show how God works in my life. Through the good, the bad and the ugly.

Life stinks sometimes but God is there. He is pruning us through the crap and walking along side us, stinking along with us so that we grow to be beautiful in Him when it is done.

Keep heart. Even though you are in the middle of the manure God is working. He will help you walk through it and grow. You will come out victorious and beautiful, bursting with the fruit of Him. You WILL come through the growing season, no matter how bleak it is.

So if you are caught in the manure keep walking. Fruit does come from manure.