We are working on our garden here in Tanzania. There are bananas, papayas, watermelon, spinach, peppers…etc…the list goes on for a bit. Some of our attempts result in something that we can eat, and some result in bug infested failures. And there are also those which don’t even start to grow. It all takes time, water, and patience. I must confess that I am not good at the waiting, and the tending of a garden. If it was left to me, there might be a few pots with a flower or two, and maybe the fruit trees. These things don’t take so much work.
But, if we tended our lives like we tend a garden, how would yours look? Mine would have bare patches, and weeds galore. There would be the odd pot of beautiful flowers, but even they would suffer from the odd drought. Feast and famine, that’s usually how I treat my life and spirit. Enthusiasm and total apathy…I take it the full gamut.
A beautiful spirit, like a beautiful garden, takes work.
Daily work.
It needs love, thankfulness, peace and a steady input of water and fertilizer. What does that mean? It means a need to immerse into the Word of God, daily. It needs a steady stream of praise and worship. The fertilizer can symbolize the truth…something we need all the time. We need to live in the truth, and sometimes that doesn’t smell the best. I know that the truth can make one uncomfortable and it is easier to avoid it that live in it. But, without it, there isn’t beautiful fruit of the Spirit.
It isn’t that hard to maintain a garden. But if it is totally neglected, it becomes a barren wasteland of weeds and snakes. There are thorns that hurt when walked on. There are sticky burrs that stick to everything. It looks hopeless…and I find that it is also not that hard to have a Spirit that is in this condition. A life of dryness and misery is the life that many lead. It seems impossible to even get to the point where there might be hope. Often it is laziness or bitterness that lead to this condition. I have been there many times. Sometimes it just sneaks up on us without us really paying attention.
I went past the field of a sluggard, past the vineyard of someone who has no sense; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest— and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man. (Proverbs 24:30-34 NIV)
This passage talks about laziness being the reason the vineyard was in such a state. And quite often that is what it is. We get caught up in every day life, and its issues. We lose focus on our relationship with our Creator. We stop reading the Bible, we stop praying. And next thing you know, it all seems far away. Easy to forget.
I need to become a gardener. Someone who waters and weeds their Spirit every day, even if for a few minutes. The need for truth and for worship are coming to the surface. The idea of dealing with the weeds doesn’t scare me anymore. I need them gone, so that I can become someone in full bloom for the Glory of God. I need the Word to have good soil so that it can germinate and grow, so that I can help feed others. This is how I want my garden to grow…