Where Are My Bananas?

I think my head’s going to explode!  I’m serious!  There was an announcement from Heidi Klum this morning that she and Seal are ENDING THEIR MARRIAGE!!!!!  OMG!  I know!  I KNOW!  I do it EVERY time, but I just can’t help it!  YIKES, STRIPES!  I mean, first of all, there are Katy Perry and Russell Brand after only 13 months, which Paxton found out before me because I was in Texas for the holidays and not watching news or reading my trash magazines (i.e. Us Weekly, In Touch, etc.).  He told me the day Brand announced it, and I wouldn’t believe him.  Seriously.  Like, I wouldn’t even Google it because as far as I was concerned, as long as I didn’t know it, it hadn’t happened.  I like Katy Perry.  I like Heidi Klum.  I have been rooting for you guys!  COME ON!  Throw me a frickin’ bone here and put a little effort into what really matters…and I AIN’T talkin’ about your careers!!!!!!!!!!! 

Must breathe a moment….Woos Fra Bah.  Rubbing the ears.  I’m like a wound up Jack Russell Terrier right now!  Ok, sip a Poweraide…let’s move forward. 

I know lately I have been focusing on making changes in life to move forward, but sadly…some of the changes that I’m speaking about today with Katy and Heidi aren’t positive changes.  However, they are changes that people sometimes make when they decide to put the entirety of their energy outside of marriage. 

Sunday morning’s sermon.  I swear on a stack of King James version Bibles, our pastor, Shawn, has been like, LIVING in my head lately!  EVERY single TIME!  It’s spot on!  Even if I don’t KNOW I need it…it’s what I NEED!  Or…maybe God is THAT good.  If I were a bettin’ woman (and I am, teeheehee)…I’d bet on the big guy upstairs.  That said, Sean was speaking on the following verse:  John 5:15: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”  (NIV).  I’m taking a bit of stretch from the sermon and also what Shawn focused on, but I feel that this too can be applied to their situations…and to ALL of our own lives in some way, shape, form, or fashion. 

In the verse it is obvious the Vine is our good Lord and we, His little branches.  Something that Shawn said, and the reason I am associating with the previously mentioned ladies, is making your home a certain place.  Shawn does a good job of using self-depreciating humor so he said, “I hate when I have to ask myself something that I intend to present to the congregation and I don’t like my own answer.  So I will ask…where do you make your home?”  He went on to do a bit of pretty typical stereo typing with placing men making their home in career, women in relationships.  But…as the ladies above proved…that’s not always true.  And they were obviously NOT making THEIR homes with the hubs.  Where did that get them?  Where would it get ANY of us in our marriages and relationships of ANY sort?  The moment you begin to place more precedence on the world…we are all but done. 

I’m guilty of it daily.  CONSTANTLY!  There are moments my mind goes somewhere…and I don’t even realize I’ve drifted into a sad state of worldly selfishness in an instant.  An interesting point that Shawn made in his sermon that really made my head nearly spin off my neck was also about home.  Home.  Close your eyes a moment.  Think of your favorite place in your home.  Is it your bed?  Is it your tub?  Is it your kitchen?  For everyone…it’s somewhere different.  Not to steal from good ol’ Dorothy, but “there’s no place like home.”  I’ve stayed in some pretty pimpin’ hotels in my life…but there ain’t no where like my good ol’ bed with my husband’s hairy leg thrown over my leg.  Take a moment and go beyond your real, physical home.  Where do you make your mental home?  Your emotional home?  If any of my previous posts have been an indicator…well…my home hasn’t exactly been in the most pleasant of places, and I’m not proud of that. 

Shawn spoke of how we often make these “homes” in places that aren’t healthy or good for us as Christians, but also, simply, aren’t healthy as human beings.  We place our “homes” in drugs, alcohol, food, sex, gambling…the list goes on.  Feel free to comment your own struggle.  We all have them, so this isn’t a place for shame.  Because we ALL do it! But the point is…it’s a place of “comfort,” but also…weirdly…discomfort.  Isn’t it strange?  When he said that I felt sick to my stomach.  It’s so true.  I must go to the Bible once again and tell it like it is:  “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” Romans 7:15 (NIV).  It’s a constant battle, that, I personally?  I’ve been fighting this battle since I was a child. 

Everyone has a battle they are fighting because they have decided to make their home outside of Christ.  He clearly states in the first verse that His home is in us.  He WANTS our hearts.  He made the gosh darn things!  Of COURSE He wants them!  And He also tells us if we would just make HIM our focus…our fruits would bloom.  Hmmm….this is where I pause a moment and have to furrow my brow toward the sky and question God just a tad.  I have been working my boo-tay off to make changes…make God my home…WHY?  WHY, o WHY isn’t there more FRUIT? 

“Did you know that the best wine is made from grapes grown in rocky, bad soil?”

Shawn questioned the congregation yesterday.  “They plant the vines in the ground, because that is how wine grapes begin.  The 1^st year they prune them back after growing…pushing through that terrible soil.  The 2^nd year, they prune back again.  The 3^rd year, the grapes come.  They are not picked…they leave them.  The 4^th year, after the grapes have withered and fallen…only then…are they harvested.  It isn’t until the 7^th year they actually break even.  The 8^th….an actual profit begins.  It isn’t until between the 15^th and 18^th year that the best wine is produced.  We live in a microwave world,” Shawn then points his finger to the air and says “BING!” before continuing.  “We expect to put a little effort, push a few buttons, and we get a product.  God puts us in rocky situations that we don’t understand…we don’t like…we HATE!  And we put so much effort and we’re not seeing these fruits NOW!  But God has a reason for this…even in bad situations God takes something from it…we just might not be able to see it IN THAT MOMENT.” 

Shawn said a lot Sunday.  But the biggest thing I think He wanted us to take away?  Unless we place our home in Christ…it ain’t gonna turn out good.  And even when we do?  Christians aren’t guaranteed this “Free Pass,” as many people believe.  I’m a prime example of someone who loves the Lord with all my heart…who believes He is my Maker.  And me?  Well…I think I’ve made it pretty clear I’m struggling.  But it’s a choice.  And so…I will round it back to my girls Heidi and Katy.  They made a choice to make their home somewhere…I’m not in their hearts or heads OR their husbands’ hearts/minds/decisions…but they made the CHOICE to make their homes elsewhere.  So…as in marriage, where you have to CHOOSE to fall in love with your spouse every day, AND YOU DO (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) IT”S WORK, PEOPLE (!!!!!!!!!!!)…to making the choice to choose Christ over your career/addiction/children/spouse/selfish desires/THE WORLD(!!!)…we have to get up every morning (and MILLIONS of moments a day)…keep choosing the better decision. 

And in case you are wondering…that would be some JESUS!  Can I get