BLOG FEB 16 09 - Hedged In???

I had a bit of a strange week ... have been focusing since coming back from holidays on 4 things - rest, peace, slow down, engage - saying it to myself over & over, almost like a mantra (or a meditation, don't freak on me now) - & last week it seemed that no matter what I attempted to do i felt my rest, peace, slowing down & engaging to be slipping like water down a slide.

Why???? I'm not sure - work got a little fuller & some last minute stuff, but that's nothing new, family were pretty crazy & tired, but just being kids u know ... (after our boy almost getting his hand bitten off by a baby Alligator on holiday & surviving he has returned with a new found determination to beat the tripe out of most things that move .. especially boys his age - help us Jesus :) Sometimes in life we know the right way to respond real well - as we r responding in the complete opposite way - last week, that was me! It's these times when I go "There r still parts of me that r so ugly!!" My wife thought I was having my time of the month :) - if u know my wife u know that isn't surprising! It was like for some moments I was an annoyed teenager!

So as I'm trying to figure all this out (which probably wasn't smart either) I eventually had the phrase come to me through something I read "You're being hedged in". Hedged In - not a normal saying I know but this is what it was kind of saying to me

"ARAN - the things that r coming out of u, that u don't like, those adolescent things - they r like weeds - weeds of incorrect thinking, incorrect issues of the soul that have been there most of your life, that are now coming to the surface to be rooted out & weeded out - just STAY where ur, keep living life, keep managing what u need to manage while I (GOD) hedge you in, so u can't go anywhere except wait & endure while I weed out that which has been deeply rooted in u in order to replace it with new seed that will EVENTUALLY produce new fruit in days to come - fruit that will feed OTHERS."

Maybe u feel hedged in too - that u have tried & tried but nothing u can do can get u out of your present living situation & issues of the soul - maybe just maybe the hedge is actually a help, a protection not a hindrance while the Gardener goes to work uprooting those weeds that always seem to come back ... the hedge means that no one can see the work that's being done until they come into the yard of our lives & get to see the difference of our garden - from old weeds to new seeds! God only hides us to heal us!!!

TILL NEXT MONDAY