Blackberry

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Romans 12:2

A simple blackberry bush, overflowing with ripe, luscious beautiful berries is what God indented a blackberry to be. In all of its simple glory, a blackberry represents the world the way God created it to be. You grow a blackberry bush, you physically go out and pick the berries. It’s hard work, but you do it anyway, because after hard work, you get the reward. The reward is sweet beautiful berries. After you eat a few of them, you can make pie, jam or any other wonderful dish you can come up with. This is normal. This is what God sees as normal. Hard work, taking time to make a wonderful treat, enjoying the fruits of your labor.
The world is constantly trying to deceive us; it tricks us in to believing that a different way of life is normal. The world tries to flip our “normal” upside down. It says: You don’t have to work hard, you should have what you want “right now”. The world wants us to believe that every want and every desire should be acted upon immediately. This type of thinking is not of God. The world has tricked us!

Immediate gratification, immediate communication: God did not intend our lives to work this way. The world makes sin look normal and righteousness seem strange. The world displaces God from His truth and from our decision making. The devil finds great pleasure in the human race thinking immediate gratification and communication is normal.
Taking the time to think about your thoughts, taking the time plan and save for something you want, taking the time to pick blackberries, taking the time to make jam: This is how God designed the world to work.

Lord, please help me to see Your truth in my every day life. Help me to concentrate on Your word and question the conventional wisdom.