Bittersweet Farm

A few weeks ago a ran into the son of a friend in another city not far from here. It was uncanny that I would connect with him in that way and I immediately sensed that God was in it and that I should be especially sensitive to what He might be doing. I quickly re-calibrated my purpose for that time and spent some time listening and being interested in the man God arranged for me to meet. He and his wife were delightful and interesting company. Our meeting has grown into a friendship that has been enjoyable and rewarding for me and I hope fulfilling and helpful for him. All of this grew out of something I believe God has shown me that I want to share with you now.

Here is the profound and life-changing truth: There are questions that lay in the bottom of our souls. These questions form who we are and what we do. In the Bible there is a proverb that says; “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”

Let me give you a couple examples of the kind of questions that are embedded deep in our souls. “Do I have what it takes?” “Will I ever be loved?” “Who will love me?” “Am I beautiful and desirable?”

I’m sure we all have questions like this that lay deep in our souls. When we are tired or lonely or suffering or rejected or afraid these questions come up out of a deep place in us and they tend to color and influence everything we do.

If you want to understand someone you want to get to know them well enough and listen to them carefully enough that you have an idea what these questions are. If you want to be wise you will quiet yourself and do what it takes to discover what those questions are in your own soul.

In other words the question that lies in the deep place in your soul profoundly influences your relationships and your decisions and how you see life.

When I met my new friend I was conscious of a powerful question that I have chosen to embed in my soul.

Now here is the powerful life-changing truth. If you change the question that lies deep in your heart, you will change your life. The best way to change that question is to find out what question God wants lying at the base of your affections as the great life-spring from which your actions and reactions come.

If the gospel is at the heart of God’s plan for this world the Gospel should inform the questions that influence our decisions and our lives. Over the years I have tried to reduce these questions to a couple and this is the result of my meditation. I am convinced that if you begin to regularly ask these questions of yourself you will experience powerful life change because these are gospel-driven questions. They are the questions that, I believe, God want us to continually ask of ourselves. Here they are:

Instead of asking: “Will I be loved?” ask the question; “Will I let God love me.” Hear the voice of Christ inquiring in the deep place in your soul every day; “Ken, will you let me love you.” Think deeply and sweetly on that. It is a powerful soul-question. (Read Romans 8 and Ephesians 3:14-21)

Here is another. Instead of saying; “Who will love me?” ask, “Will I let God love though me?” or “Who does God want me to love today.” (Read Mark 12:30-31)

What would happen if at the core of your soul every day you would ask gospel-driven questions; “Will you let me love you?” and “Will you let me love through you?” I think it would transform your life. You will meet new friends. You will continually be attentive to ways that God is guiding you and loving you and you will continually be open to people that God has placed in your path to love. It will change your life. Don’t waste your life wondering who will love you. Let God love you and let God love through you every day.

Center your soul on those questions:

Will I let God love me today?
Will I let God love through me today?

Get going now and let me know how it goes.

Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
July 21, 2012

A few years ago the whole family had the opportunity to go to Mexico. It was a memorable experience and wonderful in many ways. Every night we would visit the plaza of a town where the people would gather in the evening. Gathering in on the town plaza in the evening is a beautiful Latin-American tradition and it is a wonderful opportunity for the gospel, because it provides a natural audience.

We would sing and tell stories and juggle and do slight-of-hand and start conversations and drink ice-cold sugary Cokes as the cool of the day set in. To attract the attention of a crowd we often used a skit involving a watermelon. In the course of the drama the watermelon was destroyed.

One evening we visited a tiny village with cobblestone streets on the north edge of Lake Chapala, Mexico’s largest freshwater lake. It was a very humble, poor village. As we were setting up to do the skit one of the students with the team suggested; “I don’t think we should destroy the watermelon here, I think we should slice it up and give it away.

I gave them the OK. They sliced up the watermelon and children appeared out of nowhere to get a piece. We had a delightful time in the village until well after dark sharing with the families there.

I am convinced that we often over-organize and over-complicate ministry. Good things will happen when we just take what we have and humbly and simply share it with others.

I will carry in my heart forever the picture of the beautiful little children of the village eating watermelon that night. I will cherish a snapshot of a circle of girls listening to two young ladies in our group sharing the gospel. One giving the gospel, the other interpreting, and the dark eyes of the girls in the village drinking in the truth.

Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
July 5, 2012