Gardening in Faith
For the first time last year, we planted a garden. After we planted the little baby plants into the ground, we watered them frequently and waited. Well, summer came around and it was HOT and MUGGY. We had a few weeks of rain where we didn’t NEED to go out and intentionally water the plants, so we let the garden do its thing. After a solid month or so, I finally made the time to actually get out in to the garden and check on the not-so-little plants. To my disgust, my garden was completely overgrown with weeds. Humongous, spiky weeds were blocking my strawberries from obtaining some much-needed sun. Vines were choking the life out of my tomatoes. My zucchini plants had been infected with a powdery mildew and were slowly rotting from the inside out. So, during our kids’ naptime, Devin and I spent all afternoon yanking away at our beloved garden, trying to redeem what was left. As I sat there hacking away at our garden (complaining the ENTIRE time I might add), I started looking for the lesson in this whole thing.
“Okay, Lord. You’ve got me. You’ve got me fully attentive and CLEARLY in need of an attitude adjustment. Let’s talk”.
As I looked around at the garden, I couldn’t help but see the similarities with my journey of faith. I saw my little baby seeds of faith starting to grow in to little plants as they were nourished with truth. Some plants in the garden just exploded with life (looking at you, zucchini) and didn’t need much encouragement. Like the plants, some spiritual disciplines came easily and didn’t need much encouragement to grow. Other plants required daily discipline and pruning to reach their full potential. My tomatoes needed daily pruning, as did (DO!) my words towards others. When I didn’t yank off the suckers (super technical name) from my tomato plants, the other fruitful branches couldn’t produce as much fruit. When I don’t hold my tongue or when I spout something off in anger, I’m pulling resources from the potential fruit in my life.
And then there’s the spiky weeds. I don’t know about you, but nature just astounds me. There were some weeds in my garden that looked SO MUCH like the original plant. As I watered my strawberries in the early summer, I saw the patch start to proliferate and expected a bountiful harvest. It wasn’t until mid-summer that I noticed that not only were my strawberries not doing well.. most of them were actually weeds! I had spent time and energy raising up… WEEDS! When I started to grow in my faith, I had to learn how to discern the truth from the lie. I had to learn that my “righteous anger” was *actually* not righteous, but plain ol’ anger rooted in my own agenda. I had to learn that those nasty whispers about self-image or my role as a wife/mother were not actually from the Lord. Those whispers were not rooted in godly truth and wisdom… they were poisonous weeds pretending to be truth.
And then, the unwanted vines. The vines were the sneakiest of them all. The vines would take up residence right next to the root of my tomato plants. They slowly made their way around the stalk of the tomato plant and encircled the branches. When looking at the plant from afar, one couldn’t really see the vines choking the life out of the plant. There were a few branches that had to be completely ripped off because the vines had completely taken over. This one hit home for me, because I couldn’t help but look around and my own life. What was choking the life out of my branches? What sneaky vines are inhibiting fruit to grow? If one were to ask anyone off the street if they were “busy”, most would likely reply with an exasperated “YES”! When I considered my resources of time and money, I couldn’t help but admit that these vines were choking the life out of potential spiritual fruit. What part of the Kingdom am I sacrificing when I cling to the God-given resources of time and money? Sneaky, sneaky vine.
The powdery mildew taking over my zucchini plants was nasty. The rot started deep in the roots and spread throughout the stalks of my zucchini plants. The zucchini fruit had started to grow, but one could tell they were doomed. The rot that started in the roots was going to engulf the fruit. What am I believing that is poisoning my fruit? What false teaching have I bought into that is influencing what I say? Or worse, is there rot in how I proclaim God? Ugh.
As I looked at the whole garden, I also remembered why we even had the garden at all. The year before, a tree stood in the place of our garden. As a dead tree was taken down, it clipped our healthy shade tree and ripped it in half. Our beautiful shade tree had to come down. I was super pregnant with the twins at the time and I was very emotional about this for reasons that don’t make sense to me now (ha! HORMONES!). I was devastated that this beautiful shade tree had to come down. But, after the tree came down, we noticed the beautiful patch of sky and discovered a perfect spot for a garden in our backyard. While the tree was beautiful before, we didn’t have access to the sky. But then came the garden.
Just like our unique shade tree, there’s no replacement for our Sammi (read her story here). We mourn the loss of her presence in our lives, but we rejoice in the way God is using our suffering for His Kingdom. We can place our trust in His ability to garden infinitely better than us (thankfully, sheesh). We can trust that His light will burst forth new creation and that He will redeem the good work He started. Though we would prefer to have her with us, we choose to rejoice in the new song He has given us and look with joyful anticipation of redemption. The summer is hot and the weeds are plentiful, but the harvest is coming.
What weeds and pestilence are you battling in your journey? Do you have spiky weeds blocking your view of the sun? Do you have sneaky vines choking the life out of your fruit? Is there powdery mildew slowly growing in your roots?
