The intersection of Military Trail and Northlake Boulevard is a rather manic one. 

For each of the north, south, east and west directions, there are three lanes going straight, two left turn lanes and one right turn lane.  There are gas stations and banks and grocery stores and strip malls and lots and lots of just plain craziness.

And some grass growing in the middle of it. And I’m not talking about a median.

I was sitting there in my car yesterday morning waiting for my turn light, and saw grass  in the middle of the road.  At first I thought maybe something had dropped off a landscaping truck.  But no.  It was a tuft of grass about 5” tall growing right through the hot pavement in the exact center of the intersection.  Cars were whizzing by it, tires missing it by inches.

But it stood straight and calm as if it was completely normal to be growing there. The crazy speeding cars didn’t bother it.  The heat didn’t bother it.  The fumes and the dust and the dirt didn’t bother it.  It was just doing what God created it to do.  Grow where it was.

I wouldn’t have chosen to grow there.  I’d prefer being in a nice quiet pasture.  Or a well manicured lawn.  But sometimes we don’t have a choice about where we’re placed to grow.  Sometimes God puts us in manic situations where things are whizzing by us, where it seems that people don’t even know we’re there, where there is the dust and dirt and heat that comes with life.

And in the middle of it, calm.  Or at least there can be. 

The next time I’m in the middle of the craziness of life, I’m going to think about that grass.  I’m going to just breathe, relax, and grow where I am.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God; and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4:6-7

Cast your burden upon the Lord and He shall sustain you.  He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.  Psalm 55:22

Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink; not about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?…Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin…”  (Matthew 6:25,28b)