Got any plans tomorrow morning?

So if you come over to our house tomorrow morning around 6:15 and we don't answer our door, just come around back. 

We'll be out there digging up our yard. 

We came up with a plan. We want to dig up the area for our patio before we go on vacation next weekend. 

We dug about 1/3 of it up yesterday and it took around 4 hours. 

So we figure we have about 8 hours of work left. 

We have VBS this week, so a lot of our time after work will be spent up at the church. 

We decided to skip the gym this week and spend the time we would've spent at the gym outside tearin' it up. Pretty genius, huh?

If you live in Abilene and find yourself with a hankerin to tear up some dirt at the booty crack of dawn, head on over. Just bring your own shovel.

In other news, we planted two bushes in front of our house last fall. They both died. Or seemed dead. We were hoping they'd come back this spring, and one of them finally started sprouting some green leaves about a month or so ago. Bush #2 not so much. It only had about 10 dead leaves left, and they fell off one by one. 

Since we could take it back to Lowe's for a refund, we were going to give it some more time and then take it back before our year was up. 

We literally talked about just giving up and returning it a couple days ago. We talked about it being an eyesore. 

I checked it for new growth. Nothing.

Then yesterday, I get back from Lowes and I look over and notice how all our grass is filling in thanks to the rain from last week.

And then, lo and behold, there seem to be several twigs filled with green leaves coming out of bush #2. I walk over to it and pull on them thinking maybe something green accidentally got blown and stuck on my dead bush.

But no my friends! This bush is growing strong! 

And as far-fetched as it may seem, the Lord reminded me that lots of things (relationships, circumstances, souls) are like that bush. They seem dead for so long you give up. You're ready to yank them out, get rid of them and move on. They're ugly. They're sad. And it seems like they've run out of hope. You're sure you would've seen at least some little sign of life if one were coming. 

And then the Lord breathes vibrant life into them when He's ready. And in this case, He didn't just start with a little bud here and there. He went from nothing to whole twigs full of life that could be seen from the car. 

So hang in there. You never know when the Lord's going to bring something that seems dead back to life. 

Oh. And grab a shovel.