2.1.25

Good morning!

I got back from the Honduras trip and went to bed at late:thirty this morning. Slept for a few hours. Got up. Reflected on a great week of all the Lord did (Gen. 2;1-3). Had time in the word, prayer and then fell back asleep, but I did wake up in time for the zoom call! Thank you Lord for a great Shabbat morning!

With hindsight, which is always 20/20, my trip and world events from the past 10 days reminded me of how fragile life really is. Like a storm that blows in on the Caribbean or a 8" snow in West Florida or a suprise report from a doctor, it doesn't take much to throw life out of homeostatic balance.

Life is a physical, emotional, financial, relational and spiritual wrestling match! It doesn’t take much for us to recognize that we are but ‘dust’ (Gen. 2:7). Geology informs us that there are five different types of soil/dust on the planet and mankind reveals those colors in the shades of our skin. It's a scientific and biblical fact, 'from dust we were made and dust we shall return' (Gen. 3:19). To help confirm this, scientists tell us that we find all the naturally occurring elements of the periodic table within our amazing, dust-formed bodies. Fortunately, because of the breath of God, we are more than ‘dust in the wind’.

From mans' time in the garden to his exile outside the garden, we find that there has always been a nemesis to our God-given, ‘dusty frame’ (Psa. 103:14). As a result of man heeding the ‘snake’s invitation’ to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we as the ‘dust of the earth’ have become the top entrée on the ‘snake’s 5-star menu’ (Gen. 3:14). It’s a reality we can’t get away from.

Regardless of how individuals view the ‘snake,’ in the opening chapters of Genesis, one thing is for certain…this enemy that encouraged man to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil is still satiating his hunger pains (1 Pet. 5:8).

Again, from the beginning of man’s dusty beginning to his exile outside the garden, we’ve been designed to work with the ‘dust of the earth’ to bring forth life and fruit (Gen. 2:15; 3:23). It’s hard work. It requires ‘sweat equity’. Sometimes, through our neglect, the weeds overtake the fruit production. Sometimes, drought makes growth difficult. Sometimes flooding and hail can destroy what was about to be a bumper crop. And sometimes, the locusts devour the remains (Ex. 10:1-14; Hos. 1:1-4). But more than not, the diligent worker in the 'dust' will be part of a bountiful harvest (1 Cor. 3:6)!

Since the tree of knowledge of good and evil has been introduced to our lives, we’ve all experienced the challenges of this life. On one hand we know what it's like to be the 'main course' for the ‘enemy’. On another hand, we can fully identify with the Pogo comic strip that once said, ‘we have met the enemy and he is us.’

My personal experiences in life can testify to both the outside enemy as well as the 'Pogo-matic' problem! God knows this too! He gave us an enemy from without and He has given us an enemy to deal with from within, yetzer hara. Both are given to cause us to turn to a strength and wisdom outside of ourselves for healing, growth and reproduction (Tree of Life).

Jacob, the dusty man, knew this reality all too well. One night when He was facing a very dark time of his soul, he was left alone and there he had a wrestling match with a man until the break of dawn (Gen. 32:24).

There is a lot of speculation on who this man is that wrestled with Jacob. Nonetheless, there is a deeper reality to this wrestling match than just a tussle in the ‘dust’. Jacob’s ‘dusty’ encounter is a face-off with who he really is.  He is taken back to the very nature of his being, to the way God made him.

He has constructed out of his life a pretty 'dusty' life. But through this 'dusty' encounter he recognizes that his past identity is no longer sufficient. His 'dusty DNA' needs to be reworked. This clay vessel needs to be remolded by the Potter's Hand (Jer. 18:4). That is the wrestling match of every life, and in the end, for those who want to be blessed, God wins.

What is the dust of your life like?  Have you formed it into an image made by your own hands?  Have you taken the basic material you were born with and shaped a person who bears a resemblance to something fashioned into your idea of success?  If so, there is a wrestling match ahead.  Your dust will become the place of a great struggle with God.  You can fight all you like, but when the dark night of the soul is over and the day breaks, you'll see the light and won't let go until he blesses you! It's then that you can see clearly.

It's then that you'll grip God with all that you have left; refusing to let go. It's then that the blessing will come and then you better hang onto your 'hat' because your life is 'fixin' to change. Your walk will never be the same (Gen. 32:25). That old dust will have to be overcome before the blessing can be given.  And when it is overcome, God will resurrect the basic dust of your life into what He intended it to be since our exile; a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).

And once that internal wrestling match is over, God then calls us to serve the ‘dust’ from which we were taken and bring forth fruit from other 'dusty’ lives and then the external enemy must flee (James 4:7).

Just as man was created in the image of God, from the dust of the earth, so too God wants man to work in the lives of one another to bring forth His image until our Spirit returns to the One Who gave it to us (Eccl. 12:7).

It doesn't matter what part of the world you live in (cold, warm, snowy, sunny, wet, dry, beautiful, or...) for each of us it's from Dust to dust we go. Regardless of life's circumstances there's the opportunity to be a vessel of honor (2 Tim. 2:20-21) or there's the choice of becoming 'dust in the wind' (Jer. 18:15-17)...it's our choice! Either way we'll be working in and on the sweaty, dusty trail (Matt. 12:30). Keep working in my 'dusty life' and I'll do the same towards you!

There's work to be done! Let's get 'er done!

Shabbat Shalom!