Well this week it was time to tear down the garden. 🪴 I always enjoy tear-down-the-garden-day — for while I enjoy planting a garden and encouraging things to grow, after a summer of weeding, fertilizing, watering and weeding; I am ready to be with done with it. Did I mention the weeding? Stupid weeds…
Our garden did pretty well this year. We had more than enough tomatoes to make all of the things we make with them. Plenty of pickles canned. Lots of peppers, potatoes, lettuce and beans. 🍅🥒 🌶 🥔 🥬 🫘 — Oh My! Truth be told, I still have about 30 pounds of tomatoes to process as of the writing of this pondering. Yep… I have grown food that we eat. Like Tom Hanks crying out in the movie CASTAWAY, “I… have made fire!” I shout, “I… have grown vegetables!” Hey, don’t knock my enthusiasm… having a garden is still a relatively new experience for me, after all.
I will admit there is a kind of pleasant satisfaction in ripping up the garden plants at the end of the season. Those plants have done their job… they have performed their task… they have accomplished their purpose… now… lets rip those suckers out and throw them in the woods! Time to till in some fertilizer and let the ground replenish itself. I know by the time May rolls around — I will be excited to start all over again, but for now the garden will lie dormant until the new planting season.
It occurred to me this week though, that while allowing a garden to lie dominate over a winter season in necessary; I can never allow my faith-walk with Jesus to rest that way — especially in a season of winter. Most of us have experienced winter seasons where life has been challenging and difficult. Perhaps a health issue allowed the cold winds of winter to blow into your body, or maybe a relationship with someone that was once warm, but it later grew cold. Finances, angst in our job or at school… there are so many ways that we sometimes face winter.
But unlike my garden, winter seasons in life are where we need to press into our faith-walk with Jesus even more because God wants to do growth-work in our lives. I’ve shared this before many times, but in a time of challenge I try to ask God two questions in my prayer life. 1) Lord, what do you want to teach me in this time of trial? 2) How can I glorify you in the midst of this challenge? That discipline of asking those questions has helped me focus on my faith in Christ in difficult circumstances, instead of allowing myself to become discouraged or complacent in my faith journey.
The Apostle Paul wrote, “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.” Philippians 1:9-11 Knowledge… depth of insight… discernment… are powerful fertilizers for a soul in winter. After all, we all need to replenish ourselves from time to time.
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