Tilling the Garden Plot

Ooops...probably should get this entry posted before May is over...

 

My Uncle brought his tractor to do the dirty work...

 This area being used for the garden used to be where the old Orchard School's swing set and playground stood.

Perched upon an old concrete hunk

 You'd think we could just pick a nice little piece of ground to till up and put a simple garden in... but, no, we found all eight pieces of old sawed off swing set metal encased in concrete buried throughout this little patch....

It was all fun and games until our little boy ran and jumped on the end of one...yes, another trip to the ER for a super glue fix on the bottom of his foot.  All is well, it healed wonderfully and he's as spry as he's always been. (After a week of bandages and hopping around...same exact foot as Daddy's...there was some male bonding going on around here)

Daddy, on the other hand didn't heal quite so well....he has a boot in place for a few more weeks on his left ankle and speeds around with a pair of crutches.  We have had a mix of emotions surrounding this unexpected turn of events in our lives, but altogether it has been a hard good.  I just don't know any other way to say it. 

We take for granted that our bodies will always work and do what we want them to do...until now.  Healing takes time and it cannot be willed to heal, it just happens slowly.

So, back to tilling the garden plot....there's a lot of analogy to preparing the hearts of others to receive the gospel.   Some seed falls on the rocks, some beside the pathway, some on rocks, some with thorns and yet others fall in the good soil and bring forth "fruit with patience."  Check out Luke 8

We Christians have a responsibility to respond to the work God is doing in our lives.  The whole tilling the soil bit....it doesn't happen easily.  Sometimes there are gigantic concrete pilings to dig up, sometimes blackberry roots that keep coming back, morning glory, or whatever the challenges may be but we cannot give up.  If we decide to simply throw seeds out on our garden and hope that with the right amount of sun and rain they'll produce, people would think we're crazy.....yes, a few might actually grow and produce but the majority of the seeds would die or be choked out with weeds.

RESPONSIBILITY....such a big word that holds weight.  God holds each of us personally responsible for the choices we make.  He also holds parents, churches, and governments responsible for their choices.  The law of reaping and sowing does not only apply to gardens......

How are you tilling and preparing the soil of your own heart?  How about the hearts of your children?  Are they stone?  Collectively, how are churches supporting the work that the Lord Jesus Christ wants to do as He leads them through these last and final hours of history as known to man?

The last verse of Psalm 31, "Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD."