Welcome to our podcast of Struggling Well. We're glad you're here. recently a friend of ours, a good friend of ours, asked me to write a devotional for their family trip. I've never done that before, so it was kind of interesting. And, Jimmy knows that when somebody asks me to write something, it is like giving birth.
Yeah, it is. It's because you won't just write it. You just have to
It's that first sentence that has to be like boom. I don't, you know. Anyway, but I do love it. So, this wonderful family asked me, and I'm sure they other people as well. And so I got to thinking about the best way that I could make an illustration for them since they were going to Scotland. And if any of you know them, you will know that this great family is going to Scotland and this is a huge family trip. So as I began to think about it, I started doing a little research about Scotland where we have been twice and love it. even though my mother's maiden name was Fernandez, I am almost certain there are some Scottish blood in there somewhere.
I guess maybe if we do one of those DNA searches.
DNA searches. Yeah. Who knows what they spit in a vial? I don't. No, I don't either.
I don't either. Plus, I'm afraid that there are relatives out there and they're going to think I don't know. I may have brothers and sisters I don't even know about. And if you're related to me, please don't call me. Anyway, so it brought me to Galatians 5 verse 16 and then 22- 26. And it's about the fruit of the spirit. But if I might, let me read you the message. Sort of the message, a little bit different than the message. And this is what those verses say. My counsel is this. Live freely, animated, and motivated by God's spirit. Then you won't feed the compulsions of selfishness. H we could stop right there. For there is a root of sinful interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are contrary to each other. So you can't live at times one way and then in another way on any given day. But what happens when we live God's way? Well, he brings gifts into our lives. Much like fruit in an orchard, like affection for others and exuberance about life and serenity, we develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. And we find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, and able to marshall and direct our energies wisely. Now, you might wonder wh why would you send that devotional to a family going on this incredible family vacation together. And it comes from this when our entire family goes on vacation. There's 16 of us. the excitement of being in the same space together is just great until about day five. And then on day five, you know, when we have had days of trying to decide where we're going to eat, trying to hurt everybody out the door, some if we're at the beach, somebody's too hot, somebody's sunburn, there's always a lot of dynamics going on. And you can ask my family this that probably by about day five, my eyes start to roll back in my head and my head starts to spin around like that doll on Chucky, I think it was, or maybe it was some other hideous horror movie. And I think that by day five, now it could be day two in your vacation, I don't know. But about the middle of our vacation, I could use Galatians 5.
Yeah. And it's I like the part of the message that you read the idea of living free and the idea of putting aside self-centeredness or selfishness or whatever because that is not just vacation time. That's all of life. we find that sense of I need something for me and I need attention given to me. That was our dog flopping his ears by the way if you're wondering.
That's 90 lbs of ear flopping just to let you know.
Just to let you know. But my point is I think there's that sense of you know, people talk about all the time what's it look like to be spiritfilled? and I think we gloss over the fruit of the spirit, which are great indicators of whether the spirit's in control of my life or not.
And the fruit of the spirit, and I'm sure you all know this already, but it's fruit, not fruits,
right? It's singular.
And I think what happens is when we're in situations that are stressful and we want to live by the spirit. We really do. But then our flesh starts to flex its muscles and kind of wants to squash the spirit and it's usually not pretty when that happens.
No. And I and it is that sense of something taking over and therefore the freedom that we long for that God promises through his spirit disappears. It may be for a moment. It may be for a day, it may be for longer, but that's a constant struggle that all of us face and whether it's on vacation or whether it's in everyday life, we wrestle with that. And how do you how do you approach it? How do you how do you look to have as word maybe that isn't the right one, but how do you have victory over that battle and over that struggle?
Thinking about those things led me to do some research, more research about Scotland and I found what their the flower of Scotland is and it is the thistle. Now, if you know anything about a thistle, it is prickly and it's got these spines on them that if you pick it up, it will pierce your skin. And an interesting story probably set back in the whatevers, not 18s, 19s, before that before there were any hundreds like I don't know 500s, I don't know. I don't know time or space. I'm just in my own little world here. But there's a the story of a battle where Scotland was being attacked by
probably England.
Probably England. and as the English horses were bounding over this field full of thistles, the Scottish people on that border could hear the cries of the horses and the men as they fell off the horses because they had been riding through this whole pasture filled with thistles.
And it does have a pretty flower.
Oh, it does have a pretty flower, but don't grab it. I mean, don't put it in a vase. I mean, if you want to give it to somebody for Valentine's Day, oh boy, that says a lot, but so we're making a choice here between thistles or fruit. I know that's crazy, but
you know, as I'm writing to this family for their vacation, you know, who knows? I mean, they're great people, but they're human also. So, I'm thinking I was thinking in terms of what's it going to be on the middle of your vacation? Are you going to become this thistle or are you going to lean into the spirit?
Yeah. And the thistle of course representing our flesh that it you may it may look good on the outside but there's something about it that is destructive to who we want to be.
And the spirit invites people into our lives and we approach people with the fruit of the spirit which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control as opposed to the thistle that keeps people away. So, when we le lean on the Holy Spirit, our self-p protection fades away. Our kind kindness replaces those harsh words we want to say and frustration really bows to patience and then time with others can be extraordinary. So, as I asked the family and I'm going to ask you, what are you choosing today?
Fistels or fruit?
And it's a great question and it ought to be the question I ask every day of my life. I ought to wake up every day, even before I have any kind of encounter with you or anybody else. I need to I need to ask myself that question of am I going to yield to the spirit? Am I going to allow the spirit's lifegiving freedom to fill my day?
Or am I going to go about my day in my own strength? And the truth of the matter is I don't ask that every day.
You know, I'm thinking about marriage right now as I look at you across the table and I'm thinking we've been married a long time, 48 years.
Y
we're going to skip right over to 50 because they think 49. I don't like odd numbers, but I think about okay, what have I been like in our marriage more like fruit of the spirit or thistle? Like don't answer. Don't
say I'm not supposed to answer that one.
No, that's a rhetorical question. I don't I think you want to eat and be able to sleep. No. See, there's the thistle part of me. but think about that in our relationships with the people that we love the most. What do we what do we show them? Are we more more apt to show the fruit of the spirit or we or do we expose our flesh by being thistleike?
And those are questions that we're going to leave you with today because we think it's an important discussion that you should have an important time that you should spend thinking about those things. Have a great day.