Heather Holleman's Blog, page 14

With Every Cut

The arborists came out to our home yesterday to prune the Blue Feather Cypress trees and the Ginkgo. Another team came to remove so many dead limbs from two enormous oak trees.

As I left my house for campus, I passed by two experts working right by the driveway. I watched who made the first cut into the cypress tree. One knelt; the other observed. Then they stood back, hands on their chins, assessing. They discussed. They gently examined the next limb. With the next cut, they repeated the process, all the way up the tree. What I noticed most involved the intense discussion after each cut.

I imagine they stayed for hours. When I returned home late in the afternoon, the trees had their perfect shape, their perfect height, and their perfect look. I thought of God pruning our lives. With every cut, He deliberately and thoughtfully knows what He’s doing in our lives.

The Ginkgo enjoyed all the pruning to keep it growing tall and strong. But I learned we now must stake it for a year to direct the growth against its current inclination. It’s that holding in place, that tightly bound situation that, at least in our own lives, we tend to resist. When God stakes us down somewhere for our own good, it’s to keep us right. It’s to keep us going in the right direction. Otherwise, as the expert warned, the tree will destroy itself, toppling under its own wrong bent.

I submit to the pruning and staking. I submit to every cut.

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Smallest Little Reminder

While driving home from Penn State, I see a school teacher in the neighborhood signaling cars to stop so all the little children can cross this one road that leads to a big playground. The tall, strong teacher held up his big hand, and everyone on the busy road came to attention, slowed their cars, and stopped so the small children could run across the street. But then I noticed a tiny boy, maybe a kindergartner, begin his walk across the street as if he didn’t notice his teacher. He raised his teeny, tiny palm to tell all the cars to stop; he actually believed his hand had accomplished the marvelous power of freezing all that traffic. You could see his delight. You could sense his powerful purpose with that little palm raised.

He never saw the taller, stronger teacher with the bigger hand behind him who had already done the work. I even saw the teacher smile as he watched the little boy believe he had done it all.

I suppose in that moment, I knew the truth about my whole life with God.

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Advisory

Late last night, our neighborhood received a “water boil advisory” because a main water line broke. With fears of contaminated water, we all boiled water for drinking and brushing teeth (and of course for morning coffee!) I quickly realized we didn’t possess any stock of bottled water in the house. Naturally, I woke up thinking about whether our home counts as “disaster ready.” During some years, we prepared better with flashlights and batteries, stored food and water, and all the things recommended for our disaster kit.

I’m definitely replenishing my kit this week.

Disaster readiness also makes me think of my spiritual life and how I’m preparing for unexpected events with the maturity, scripture memorization, and knowledge of God to care for myself and others in times of need. Disaster readiness spiritually means we dwell on and believe the attributes of God, our citizenship in heaven, and on the meaning of suffering as part of our sanctification. It means we are that “non-anxious presence” (as my mentor prays for me to be!) in the lives of others who suffer and experience fear. Finally, disaster readiness means we continually live out Spirit-filled lives and depend on the wisdom, comfort, and peace of the Holy Spirit.

Meanwhile, I’m eager to get to campus where there’s safe water to drink. I want to be near the right kind of water, just as we can direct people to the Living Water when the time comes. I’m taking the advisory to heart.

What you’re drinking is not safe! Let me help you find the Living Water!

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Interruptible and Double Harvest

Yesterday, I couldn’t post my blog on time because my college daughter and roommate wanted to pop in to visit. It didn’t matter what I was doing at that moment. When it’s your children wanting to visit, it’s going to be a “yes” — a sort of drop everything and put out the snacks kind of thing. Living with flair has always meant being “interruptible,” and that matters now more than ever with adult children. (I recently heard a speaker talk about how God is like that with us. When we call, He answers.) So that is Sunday.

Today, I think about the second round of raspberries now filling the garden. It’s a strange thing to pick your last morning bowl, see the canes look like they’re withering, and then a month later observe the biggest, ripest, reddest berries. The double harvest of raspberries always reminds me of the goodness of God and the abundant, often unpredictable or illogical ways He blesses and helps us bear fruit. Just when we think we’re done or something is past is prime, God returns blessing and fruitfulness.

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Perfect Little Pumpkins

We invite the little girls next door to journey into the mini pumpkin patch to pick a round of early pumpkins. We’ll have more ready to pick in a few weeks as well. Last year, we grew so many little pumpkins that we could deliver them to many neighbors. They don’t rot or soften, so they are perfect fall decor. The seed packet I found, called “Mini Harvest Blend,” produces striped pumpkins, white pumpkins, orange pumpkins, and sometimes spotted pumpkins—all small enough to hold in your hand.

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Of Which We Were Not Aware

This morning my dear professor friend passed along a quote about writing that she shares with her students. I just love it! I want to share it with my students when we start our narrative unit. Perhaps it will inspire your own writing today. It’s from Henri Nouwen, recorded today on the Henri Nouwen Society website. He writes this:

Writing is a process in which we discover what lives in us. The writing itself reveals to us what is alive in us. The deepest satisfaction of writing is precisely that it opens up new spaces within us of which we were not aware before we started to write. To write is to embark on a journey whose final destination we do not know. Thus, writing requires a real act of trust. We have to say to ourselves: “I do not yet know what I carry in my heart, but I trust that it will emerge as I write.” Writing is like giving away the few loaves and fishes one has, trusting that they will multiply in the giving. Once we dare to “give away” on paper the few thoughts that come to us, we start discovering how much is hidden underneath these thoughts and gradually come in touch with our own riches.

Henri Nouwen

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Gather ‘Round to Learn

This morning, I walked past a class meeting outside under a beautiful oak tree. The students sat on the green grass. Two professors (obvious tree experts) passionately instructed their students about some kind of tree issue. The students sipped coffee and took notes in their notebooks. They listened to one professor as he walked around the tree with his hand on the trunk. The morning felt cool and crisp, and I suddenly wanted to sit there with all those students, learning about trees. What a mystery learning is! What joy that our brains learn! And how diverse our passions: Some of us gather ’round oak trees; some of us labor over weak verbs; some of us peer into the microscope. I love the college campus, at least at Penn State, where every class feels like marveling to me.

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The Repeated Request in Psalm 119

I notice the repetition of a key verb in Psalm 119 this morning. It’s revive. Nine times in this beautiful psalm, the writer implores God to “revive” him according to God’s lovingkindness. Over and over again, the prayer goes out: “Revive me” by God’s word, through righteousness, though His love. The prayer that God would revive us means we’re brought out of sickness, discouragement, fatigue, stagnation, and despair. It’s a prayer for fresh energy and new strength. May God revive us this morning.

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The Tug on the Heart

Last night I enjoyed a special time of prayer for our college students, teachers, and children. Something my friend prayed stuck with me all night and this morning. He asked God to continue to “tug at the hearts” of our children so they would be drawn to seek God more and more. I remember that tug. I remember that drawing towards God.

In John 6:44, we hear Jesus talk about the Father drawing people to Him. We also know that in Jeremiah 31:3, God draws us to Him with lovingkindness. Or consider Romans 2:4 and how God’s kindness leads us, or draws us, to repentance. May it feel like an irresistible force.

May God tug at our hearts, drawing us more and more to Him.

We also prayed that students would feel attracted to godliness and repelled by “worthless things” (Psalm 119:37). What a great prayer for us all!

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The Spirit Helping Us

This morning I read Romans 8 and loved looking at the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It’s a powerful moment in this letter when Paul writes, “The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.” Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to govern our minds and bring us that life and peace for which we long.

I also love in verse 18 how the Holy Spirit reminds us that we are God’s children. You might need a reminder today that you can actually live like a beloved child of God. How would a child like this live? I think of a beloved child skipping along, knowing that all her needs are lovingly met by a kind, good Father. A beloved child feels the delight of this Father as well. A beloved child anticipates all the good things coming to her.

I also notice how the Holy Spirit “helps us in our weakness” and intercedes for us (26-27). We might not know what to pray for ourselves, but the Holy Spirit does! How wonderful!

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