The world is in full bloom.  The garden lives within the season of full-yield.
The sunflowers stand tall, several feet above her head.
The prickly okra grows in abundance, oftentimes creating a stalk that is inedible and tough-skinned if not cut early from the garden.
The tomatoes (of three varieties) are a delight to many, as several have walked by, plucked a ripe tomato to eat garden side, much as one might eat an apple.
Then there are the two rows of green beans.  A wild mess!!……..inner twining their runners around the nearby okra.  The green beans grow so close to the ground and have become so entangled that this gardener cannot see where one row begins and the second row ends.

A few months ago when the garden was bare of vegetation, when the dirt was first tilled, green beans were considered but not favored.  Why?  That’s easy to answer. 
Green beans (that grow in my garden) are normally a backache waiting to happen.  Yes, for sure.  Yesterday, as I found myself down on all four (my hands and knees), crawling from one plant to the next, I asked myself, “Why do I bother with these plants?   Surely, I must be crazy.   My husband doesn’t even like green beans!

As I crawled from vine to vine, I considered how our daily battles are so much like vining green beans.  We entwine ourselves around this hobby and that career task and even around that relationship……hoping that THIS SEASON……THIS YEAR……We will grow taller, stronger, produce a bounty, and be more appealing to those surrounding us.

Yet…..sometimes our lives can just be a green bean tangled mess.
And…..sometimes our lives can just become one excuse followed by another, one reason why we cannot, followed by another, as we live within the world of “the cannots.”

• I cannot find someone to share life with, one who completes me.
• I cannot get my health under control, back to way I felt when I was twenty.
• I cannot make my career go the way it should go, focused and fresh and new.
• I cannot do this; I cannot get that, and I cannot make that.

Yes, if we are not careful, we will find ourselves living in the land of the “cannots,” crawling along the messy rows of life, unyielding, entrapped by all sorts of obstacles, and entwined around objects that seem to control our growth.

But let’s be honest.  We are more than that.  We are spiritual beings created by Almighty God, and we are drawn to our Holy Father into an intimate relationship with Him through His Holy Spirit. 
We are NOT to allow ourselves to become entangled in the mess of this world, becoming an unyielding, vining mess like the green beans I crawled through yesterday.  My tiredness grew as my energy became spent, as I crawled from one plant to the next, turning each plant left and then right, and oftentimes not finding a single green bean for my efforts.

Does God ever look at my life in the same way I looked at the green beans?
Does God ever look at my relationships, my health, my career, and my spiritual growth…..& think, truly she is a tangled mess.

Take heart.  God’s Word provides direction for the sunshine seasons of life as well as for the dark days of despair.  Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes words that we have read before; yet, still, words that will help us in every season of life.

“There is an appointed time for everything. 
And there is a time for every event under heaven—“
Then Solomon writes a litany of the various “times” we may find ourselves living.

A Time…..

Giving birth…..and Death.
Planting…..and Uprooting that which we so carefully planted.
To kill…..and to Heal.
One of demolition…..and one of Building up.
Weeping…..and Laughter. 
Mourning…..and Dancing.
Throwing Stones…..and Gathering Stones.
Embracing others…..and Refraining from their embrace.
Searching for lost objects…..and Accepting the loss of the object.
Keeping…..and Throwing away.
Tearing apart…..and Sewing to bring together in repair.
Standing in silence…..and Speaking aloud.
Loving…..and one of Hate.
“A time for war and a time for Peace.”

 (Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8)

Whatever season we are living within…..God is there.
Whatever tangled mess we seem to live within…..God is there.
Whatever obstacle has seemed to take control of our days, hours, and minutes……God is there.

“He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.

I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one’s lifetime;…” (Ecclesiastes 3: 11-12)

• With God’s help, we can face our issues head-on, even as we find ourselves crawling along the entangled mess of our lives.
• With God’s help, we can allow Him to take control of our every action, thought, and word.
• With God’s help, we can take delight in the sunny times of growth and the dark days of turmoil (because His Holy Spirit will be right there).
• With God’s help, we can learn as we go through this season, and we can grow, even actually producing some “green beans” along the way.
• With God’s help, we can overcome the entanglements and bondages that attempt to enslave us and hinder our spiritual growth.

YES, With GOD’S HELP…….We can live a joy-filled life and grow toward our spiritual maturity.
With God’s Help…..We Can!!!