PINE was my life motto for quite sometime, before it grew to become PINECONE. I will share with you why PINE is meaningful to me.
You may have realized by now that I see patterns and codes in everything, and so acronyms are a given with me. One of my spiritual gifts is giving. Giving is a motivational spiritual gift for me, and along with patterns and codes, my eye and heart are always catching sight of ways to give, in everything. Its a lens for me. Giving is the way I see the world around me.
Because of this, some of my favorite passages and stories in Scripture are about giving, and in particular, the story Jesus told of the widow at the temple treasury, recorded in Mark 12, verses 41-44:
"Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
I have read these words many times, and the obvious stand out is that the widow "put in everything--all she had to live on"---that truly is everything! I have carried these words around with me and pondered them and prayed over them much. This is what I want to do! I want to put in everything! What does that look like? All she had to live on--how would one even do that? What could this mean in my life? How can I put in everything?
Sometimes I see acronyms in an instant (even I am amazed by how quickly I see things sometimes!) and other times, it is after I have looked at something and considered it for ages--a light pops on, and I see something that has been there all along! I really don't know what happened with put in everything, but I do remember the first acronym I saw was pie, p-i-e, put-in-everything. One day, my pie became pine, when the word in jumped out to me, and I saw a new acronym pattern, and used the whole middle word of in, with the p for put and the e for everything on either side. I was delighted.
PINE it was! I carried that idea around with me and prayed with it. PINE means to long for something, and I longed to be the kind of Giver that Jesus praised, that "put in everything-all she had to live on".
PINE is a good thing to do. I think it is often, even always, part of the way the LORD leads us. He plants something in us, our desires, our calling, our gifts, and then gives us the gift of pining after Him, and pining for His promises to be fulfilled. This shapes our hearts and deepens our desires for Him and for His ways!
I have carried in my heart a vision to bless the nations for most of my life, and I am 50 years old. I have yet to see what He has planted in me come to pass. Even in the tiniest way. I am tempted at times, to think that I am just unsuccessful, or that I don't know how to execute. I wonder why nothing has happened yet. Fortunately I don't stay too long in those thoughts. When I do, I feel deep despair, and I know that is not the fruit of faith.
I am alive to and aware of the Holy Spirit speaking and working so consistently and abundantly in my life, that I know it must be a matter of His timing. Confirmation of His calling and work in my life is so rich, that I continue to follow, and wait, and trust that He will use me, but that He Himself will bring all these things to pass, at their appointed time.
And in the meantime, He is teaching me what it means to put in everything--all I have to live on, and to pine, to long, for His Kingdom to come on earth, as it is in heaven, which is the very reason I want to put in everything, as the widow did---into the temple treasury.
