God’s Peace or My Peas [SHAPED BY FAITH]

It's time to make a choice to love the things of this world or to love only God.

I have a new appreciation for the hard work that goes into that bag of frozen peas at the grocery store.  This spring in our backyard garden, we planted 6 rows of peas and it takes a lot practice to know when to pick them.  If they are too young, the peas are too small and flat, if they are too old, the peas get very large and bitter.  However, if you pick them at just the right plumpness, garden peas are sweet and delicious straight out of the pod.

After picking a mixing bowl worth of pea pods, I proudly sat on the porch swing and started shelling peas.  What seemed like a huge amount of pea pods only gave half a cereal bowl of little peas.  And because so much work produced so little food, those peas were precious to me!  My heart longed for every one of those peas to be eaten and enjoyed by someone lest they be grown in vain!

That night I served my fresh garden peas to my family and they were delicious, but at the end of the meal, there were a few peas left on some of the plates.  My first thought was I can just eat everyone’s leftover peas because at least then they would be eaten; no waste.  But my stomach was satisfied, and to eat more would be to consume more than my body needed.  Then I thought, I could scoot those peas back into the serving bowl, store them in the fridge and serve them again the next night.  How could we throw away the peas that I had worked so hard to grow and shell?  Wasn’t my family proud of me for tending and preparing such amazing peas.

 "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.  The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” 1 John 2:15-17 NIV

God’s Spirit tugged at my heart and made me realize that my “lust” or craving to eat the peas, my “lust” or need to keep the peas, my pride for having done the work to grow the peas, that is all from the world, not from God.  My prayer is that my desire for this world will pass away, but that means that I have to listen to the Spirit.  To be honest, it was not really about the peas at all, it was about loving God more than myself. When I think about it that way, a few peas tossed in the trashcan is totally worth it.