Keep digging!

2:04 p.m. Today's project was to plant the free Pinkerton avocado tree we brought home last Wednesday afternoon. I had only watered it once, because I didn't want it to be too heavy when Steve carried it out to the far corner of the backyard. It's new home is on a bank among the citrus and pine trees and a "volunteer" tree whose type and origin nobody knows.

Having read the directions, I knew we had to dig a much wider and deeper hole than the height and diameter of the root ball. We needed to accommodate some potting soil mix under and around the plant's roots. So I took those measurements while Steve started with his post hole digger. He would dig, and after every few stabs, I would shovel out the loose dirt. We had also poured potting mix into our wheelbarrow a few days ago, so I wheeled it out of the garden and into the backyard to have it ready.

Attacking the dirt with the post hole digger, Steve kept saying, "This soil is really hard and rocky!" (Our neighborhood is built on decomposed granite, very steady in earthquakes). "Well, " I replied, "at least it'll have good drainage." I pitched in with the shovel, too, and it was tough going at first, not very productive.

But as he dug deeper, Steve proclaimed, "The soil's getting looser now!" and so it was! The dirt moved out of our hole much faster, and soon we were finished. We shoveled in some potting soil, leveled it, fetched the tree, sat it on top of the added soil, loaded up the hole with a few more cubic feet of soil, and the tree was planted! We dug an irrigation channel encircling it, we began a steady drip of water, then went over to work in our garden.

Like Steve in the initial going with his post hole digger, we come to times in our walk with the Lord when it's just too hard to go on, it seems. I felt that way last night, just overwhelmed and somewhat discouraged by trials and issues piling up. But after the Lord gave me a good night's rest, I woke up to the news that two more friends are joining our mutual friend Rachel's garden party tomorrow where I'll be speaking. Praise you, Lord!

But no problems were solved, not until I dug deeper into my heart and poured it all out to the Lord in silent prayer, weeping, and continued in my journal. We need to cast all our cares upon Him, for He cares for us, according to I Peter 5:7, and "all" means "all." From recent embarrassments and inconveniences to the serious trials that actually caused a physical pain in my chest this morning from stress, I had to "keep digging" until I found that malleable soil in the depths of my heart, where I could finally tell the Lord that I just can't do it alone any more! (Jesus knew that, and was waiting for me to agree with Him!) I felt so sorry for myself that I took an aspirin in case I was having a heart attack, and put on my Freedom Alert pendant that calls 911 at the push of a button. That made me feel even more pathetically alone, because with just the two of us at home today, and Steve's mounting confusion, there's only one person who could even call 911!

A upbeat phone conversation with my Dad full of tips for correctly planting our tree, followed by good, strenuous outdoor work, took away my pain and set my mind on things above. Steve needed many repetitions of directions; no one magically took care of wedding finances and details; and I still need to plan a way to house and feed my grandsons, my sister, her dog, and my youngest son during wedding week, while running my business and teaching the Word on Thursdays! But I have a deep confidence now that was absent yesterday and this morning. The Lord has shown me how much support, opportunity and encouragement He has provided, and will continue to provide, in the very situations that I label "stressful."

As we dig ever deeper into God's word, seeking His counsel to face our trials directly, confessing the sin that often lies at the bottom of our problems, as well as confessing our fears and anxieties as sin, we will find that our going gets easier! Let's journey with the One of whom this promise is written in Psalm 16:11:

You will show me the path of life;

In Your presence is fullness of joy;

At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.