Thursday, July 26, 2012

The Garden of Life

It was hard to walk this morning.  The air was very heavy and my joints felt achy.  As I read from The Scribe, I started praying.  The book is about Silas, Paul's second missionary companion.  It is told from his first person experience and in it he speaks of the beatings, robberies, etc. they received and how Paul would immediately begin telling their abusers about Jesus.  This encouraged him to do the same, though he speaks of the struggle with anger and the desire to be free of pain even while praising God that he is allowed to suffer for Christ's sake.  Very honestly written, I think, even though it is a work of fiction based on historical facts.  Honest, because it reveals our inmost feelings even when we do not wish to have them revealed even to ourselves.
I quickly offered up a prayer of thanksgiving to God for waking me and ushering me out the door to walk and explained that I know I wouldn't do it if He didn't do so each morning.  There is part of me that wants to rebel against it and seeks an alternate form of exercise, even though the doctor says walking is the best form for me personally.  I realize things will be different this winter when I simply cannot go outside and walk for 40 minutes.  This is where God will have to intervene and usher me onto the mini trampoline.  Even though it is fun, it is still time away from what I want to do.  Selfish?  You bet, but I must admit it in order to be set free of it.
I am very grateful that I am allowed to walk.  My legs and/or the use of them could be stripped from me at any given moment.  I have heard of this happening to people like Joni Eareckson Tada and our niece's husband, Paul.   They would neither have ever expected it to happen to them, yet it has and God has His reasons for allowing it.  The same could one day happen to me.  There is also my own mother who was born with misshapen feet and has difficulty walking at all, but forces herself.  So, in the mean time, I should be willing to use my legs for His glory, and walking each morning keeps me in better physical health in which to serve Him.  So, I get up each morning, do my best to not grumble, offer up thanks for working legs and feet and begin my journey.  I try to make it a sweet smelling sacrifice, but fear that it sometimes brings a stench to His nostrils.
This morning I was thinking about grass.  So many people around us planted gardens, but instead of watering them faithfully, were more concerned about whether their grass was green or not.  I am not saying it is wrong to water your lawn, by any means, but if you have to choose one over the other, why choose grass?  I have been pondering this for a few weeks.  There is a sort of competitive spirit on my street.  Who has the greenest, most weed free lawn?  Final results show us as losing drastically.  However, we have been blessed with a prosperous garden.  It is a very small garden, but has produced many green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and is working on celery.  We plan on planting more green beans this weekend.  It has taken faithfulness on the part of my husband to see the garden produce.  He gets up every morning and comes home every evening knowing the first thing he is going to do each time is water the garden.  He has fed it, sprayed it with garlic and peppers spray to keep deer away, hoed and reaped faithfully.  Our garden has done quite well.
Our spiritual life is much the same.  What are we taking time to water?  Are we more concerned with aesthetics or production?  I can exercise my body to keep it in shape, and this is a good thing, but which is better?  Making sure my body's outward appearance is good or making sure I am producing fruit for His kingdom through learning His Word and sharing it with others?  Listening to His voice and obeying, or striving to gain others approval through outward appearances?
Lord, help me be faithful in the work that allows the garden of my life to produce enough that all around me may share in its bounty!

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