Choosing to Diminish or Increase

A bird flies across their path and it is taken as an evil omen: they must not go out to work that day, they must go home and stay in their home…the first and best stalks of wheat must be offered to their gods…this tribe picks each individual stalk of wheat by hand to harvest, and that after a growing process that has taken an entire year.  They do not eat the good fish in their river because they are slippery, and eating that which is slippery will cause their crops and necessities for life to slip away… 

Modern life in a tribe remote in the hills of the Philippines...

I’ve had something troubling me for a long while now,  and all of a sudden it makes sense in a new way.  Why has it seemed in these times like that which is good, is constantly running up against roadblocks, against diminishing forces?  It can be everything from the beauty of raising godly generations to something as earthy as the mass destruction of bees that provide far more for our well-being than honey; the polluting of our food,  to the conflict between spouses.  Always, that which diminishes those things that are pure, lovely, good, satisfying, and --productive.

 The evil one is a destroyer, the missionary to that tribe said.  Anything that can be done to steal away productive lives, to diminish their work, to prevent them from providing for their families and from the community functioning with increase…the presence of evil always  robs, steals, destroys.  Their superstitions bind them.

With the coming of the gospel, all this has gone.  No longer do they lose days of work, and scrabble together meager produce off the land.  The gospel  brings life in more than just our salvation and the glorious hope of our eternity with God; it causes us to live differently in the everyday tasks, the work of our hands.

I do believe we are today in one of the epic battles of history.  Paganism, sensuality, unbelief, and every evil practice is sweeping our land.  The skirmishes are daily and sometimes hourly and sometimes threaten to overwhelm us.  In airport small talk, someone asked the pastor who preached to us yesterday, “What is happening to us?”  following the tragedies of the last week.  We do not go home from the fields when the bird crosses our path; but we do retreat when evil triumphs in our home path.

I have come once again to the realization that our greatest tools and weapons are the simple things laid out so well for us in Scripture; and that tools are meant to wage war and till hard ground, depending on the moment, and that both are hard, hard work.  As women, finding our identity in Christ; maintaining a gentle and quiet spirit.  Loving our husbands, our children, keeping our homes, providing hospitality.  So basic.  So countercultural today.  What is in the way of this, for me, for today?  That is where my battle is.  The Proverbs 31 woman is not an anomaly, an ancient superwoman.  She is the woman who trusts God and lives in the Word, who understands the power of prayer, who moves forward in faith and confidence in what God is doing in her, in her husband, in her children, in her church.  Therefore, she flourishes in her work.  The ancient paths lead to victory.

Phit

Photos: Thistledown Card