Feed the Garden

Right now I have six or seven blog posts in my head. I want to do another set of four on songs from one of Matt Redman's cds, but haven't gotten to that yet. I have one or two that I'm debating writing and may or may not get to. And as the time for harvest grows closer my mind is full of thoughts on the garden. My water melons still don't seem to be doing much, it looks like I may end up buying seeds for next year, but the sunflowers my father-in-law planted looked good when I was down there last week, and hopefully soon I'll get to make a trip down to collect and roast the seeds.

Today’s thought comes from a lady I met at work last week. She came up to me with a problem. Her garden wasn't doing well this year. The plants didn't look healthy and nothing was producing any vegetables. She then told me that this is the first time in twenty years that her garden hasn't done anything at all. Every year for the past two decades she has planted her garden in this spot, and every year it has done really well, until now.

Before I found out how long it had been in the same spot I reminded her that it has been a very wet year, but then when she told me how long it had been planted I asked another question. "Do you fertilize or compost?" And she said no, she doesn't add any chemicals to the soil. At that point I knew her problem, her soil is shot.

After twenty years of planting the same plants in the same spot all of the nutrients have been sucked out of the soil. She has planted, she has harvested, but she never fed the soil. All of the taking and not giving can only last so long, and now her soil has nothing left to give the plants, and the plants in turn have nothing to give her.

If you garden in the same spot year after year, you've got to feed the soil. Like everything else, if you continue to use it without giving back it will eventually lose its ability to produce. And the same is true of our lives. If we constantly give without ever receiving, eventually we have nothing left to give. We must have something that pours into us. I've written this past month how prayer and Bible study do feed us, but I think we really do need more than just those two things, as important as they are.

I don't know where I first heard it, but the Apostle Paul's relationships are often given as a model for Christian's to live by. He himself was a teacher and mentor to Timothy; he poured into him and instructed him. But we also see that Paul had Silas, a friend and companion who journeyed with him. We need a Paul in our lives, and that means we need to take the role of Timothy. We need someone who will mentor us and challenge us. We need someone who will call out the best in us, challenge us to be all that we can be. We need a Silas who will walk with us and encourage us.

We need to be fed so that we can feed our Timothy. If no one is pouring into us, eventually we can't pour anything else out. If the well isn't connected to a spring, eventually it just becomes a dry pit. If you want a fruitful life, then find someone who will feed your soul. Find a person who has a more intimate and experienced relationship with Christ than you, someone who is more like Christ than you are. Listen to them, learn from them, and allow them to help you become more like Christ.

Find a Paul, feed the soil.

"I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread."

To God alone be the Glory!

Peace be with you