“Hedges”
“Conviction”
I remember years ago when I was young. My aunt would call my mother and ask if us boys could come over and trim her hedges. We would say, Oh-No. These weren’t just any hedges; they were tall, wide, thick and had white flowers that filled the air with a thick super sweet aroma. It was sickening sweet. I can still smell them today.
Hedges have played an important role throughout history. Some were so thick that a dog couldn’t get through them. Some had thorns that stopped everything from coming through. The purpose was to keep unwanted things out and keep safe those on the inside. Hedges were a poor man’s protective wall.
I lived in the French quarter in New Orleans back in my so called hippie days in the sixties. There was a wall all the way around the house. Every house has one. On top of it, embedded in concrete were broken bottles to discourage climbers. Now that was serious keeping the bad guys out. I climbed over it one night and never got cut. I was locked out and staying on the outside with the bad guys all night was not an option.
Well now, there are physical hedges and there are spiritual hedges, and there are those who try to breach them both. The hedge builder wants to keep what he’s got and the breacher wants what you have and you also. Those on the inside and those on the outside each have different motives. Those on the outside say, “I want what’s on the inside” and the ones on the inside say, “You can’t have it”.
Hedges are meant to be impenetrable. The enemy of good is always at work trying to penetrate the hedge, and he might could if it was just bushes and thorns. But there is a spiritual hedge within the physical hedge also. This hedge is absolutely impenetrable unless allowed to be breached. Those on the inside live in peace with their vision of real life, and those on the outside with their vision. Those on the outside live completely different. Those on the inside may peep over the hedge to see what the outside is doing. It is absolutely going to be different, and after all they have no hedges.
Well, peeping over the hedge can be dangerous. If we humans didn’t have eyes to see with, ears to hear with, a nose to smell with, a mouth to say things with and feelings to feel things with we wouldn’t have any problems with what’s out there. While looking over the hedge, you are thinking, I never saw that before, I never heard that before, Etc. Get the picture? There are things out there that are very tempting if looked at, heard, smelled, felt or said. If observed too long they can become addictive. Sin is not sin to me if I only observe it and go on, but if we dwell on it too long and begin to do it, it becomes sin. Hedge breached!
I had to stop writing a moment to answer the phone. It was from the outside. They said, “Don’t hang up; this is not a sales call. Just want to talk about your septic tank”. Good try. Click. One intruder stopped. Can you think of any?
Our physical hedge can be super strong but our spiritual hedge must be even stronger. We didn’t build the spiritual hedge, God did. We just maintain it. When our physical hedge has been breached, we recognize it and patch it with forgiveness. Then God patches the damaged spiritual hedge. We can and will be breached at times, because of the outside world’s temptations and our frail human makeup. We live in a fallen world and are affected by it at times.
God directs us to build our hedge around us and our families and He makes it impregnable. We can peep over the wall, but don’t dwell on it long. Remember inside is the best and most magnificent of all. Not so, on the outside. Have mercy on those still on the outside, but don’t taste their so called delicacies. It may seem good to the eyes, ears, nose, mouth and feelings, but it will be bitter to the stomach.
O, by the way, about the glass topped wall I climbed over in New Orleans. I didn’t get cut because my mother had prayed a hedge of protection around me, even during my outside the hedge days. I could have died if it hadn’t been for her. So, I pray the same for my children today, until they have their own God built hedge of protection. My Mother’s hedge was her conviction. Our Hedge is of our conviction.
David McClary
avoicefromthemountain.com
