...an answer to last month's post...
By the big window that faces West, I sort through a collection of seed packets in a cardboard box. Before me, two dozen little peat pots sit basking in the puddle of sun that filters through the pane, waiting to receive their dormant charges and incubate new life. My fingers tremble as I gently pinch two delicate seeds, making a tiny well in a pot marked Amish Paste Tomatoes, and drop them in. A few moments later a gentle mist causes the soil to glisten and the curtains are opened to invite a wider swath of golden beam to coax germination.
Over the course of weeks, curls of green push through the soil and unfurl as two leaves open timidly to the world around. They soon turn to the sunlight, drinking the light mist and adding to their stature and strength.
I return to the little nursery one evening to close the curtains and turn on the lamp, before removing the miniature greenhouse roof to visit my little green darlings. With satisfaction I survey the sprinklings of life-color contrasting the deep soil and breathe in the earth smell and breathe out a contented sigh. Just as I begin to cover them again, something catches my eye. A small patch of sprouts had been sown too close together and were now in competition for space and attention. A small frown shapes my lips as I lean closer to examine the sad tangle. I know there is only one answer to the dilemma. To allow all of the seedlings to grow in the small pot would cause every single one to struggle and pale and die - leaving the pot destitute of all life, and the sowing without a harvest.
With sorrowful determination, I pinch one of the smallest seedlings and uproot it.
I continue to thin until only the strongest and best placed sprout remains to occupy the pot and grow strong from the nutrients. And I smile because I know that it is the best way.
I'm beginning to understand why the Lord uses agriculture so often in Biblical parables and analogies. My draft archive is filled with unpublished posts concerning spiritual lessons I'd learned when working in my garden.
Life is a lot like a garden. When starting seed indoors, I always drop a couple of extra seeds into each peat pot, smiling as I think of the verse that says whoever sows generously shall also reap generously. I plant so many seeds because I know that some may not take and I know that time is of the essence and it is imperative that at least one does grow.
I sow and pray that the Lord will bless the work and step back to watch the miracle.
Oftentimes, more than one of the seeds that I plant in a single pot will germinate and all will burst forth in life. I cry tears of thankfulness, yet discipline myself to reach in and remove some of the sprouts. There is no curse in so much growth -- indeed, it is a testimony to fertile conditions and God's generous blessing. However, a good gardener must thin out the weak so that that which remains may grow stronger. It's stewardship.
In my life, my cup overflows. Even since January 4th, the Lord has brought so many opportunities to serve my family, my local church and the international body of Christ that I haven't room for it all. It's good. As I said before, there is no curse in so much growth -- indeed, it is a testimony to fertile life conditions and God's generous blessing! However, as a steward of limited time and resources, I must thin out that which is weak so that that which remains may grow stronger.
In life, I am so tempted to create my own personal garden, cultivating everything that pleases and comforts myself. I want my own little life in which to escape with a pretty little picket gate to close to the rest of the imposing world. Yet I struggle with my responsibilities to tend to my family's needs, my friends' hopes, my society's expectations. Therefore I sow in abundance, hoping to plant a little life here and there so that I can expect a harvest in all directions. Then God blesses efforts and my seeds sprout and I am overwhelmed with the abundance that begins to compete for time and resources. So, I thin. By God's grace and according to the council of the wise people the Lord has placed in my life, I uproot those petty selfish seeds I'd sown. They are the weakest now, yet I know that they could eventually outgrow the rest and begin to choke out those plants bearing eternal fruit. I thin the unBiblical demands and expectations from my community and culture, knowing that time is a precious resource that mustn't be wasted on keeping up with the Joneses. The remaining continue to grow and begin to bend against the other's stalk. So I reach in again, my hand hovering between two seedlings. Daddy's list of projects or my blog? I hover and think and pray. I know the answer, deep down, yet I hesitate. Is there a way out? So I call a friend to discuss the matter. She faithfully assures me that I must do that which is in line with my Biblical calling as a helper. I inhale, set my jaw and pull the smaller seedling. Then, relief floods and I smile because I know that it is the best way.
This blog has been a great blessing. Especially in the last few months, I've seen it grow as traffic nearly doubled every month. Many kind people have expressed gratitude for its existence, and I was even informed that a lady who comes from a family that I respect very much was in approval of its message. The post-writing machine in my head has been fueled with an over-abundance of material which could keep my fingers tapping happily across the keys for a lifetime.
However, to everything there is a season.
Although I won't be closing this website for the archive's sake, my season of personal blogging is coming to an end. With the repair-project on our motorhome picking up speed, our desire to be debt-free increasing and several entrepreneurial ventures being pursued and realized, Daddy has been needing more of my undivided attention. McCauley will be graduating soon, which means a new season of more intense acquisition of homemaking skills along with her. Gracey-baby is beginning to talk and wants to learn anything we will teach her - what a wonderful opportunity to bless her life. Jasco is really reaching out in his entrepreneurial endeavors, and I so want to be more helpful to him. Marmy, according to Daddy's direction, has been ordering boxes of amazing materials from Vision Forum and Chalcedon that I just can't wait to get into. The 52 book challenge has begun and I'm a little behind already, but have learned so very much thus far and I am confident now that the books I am reading will provide an excellent education.
God is good and His blessings are abundant. According to His grace and by His strength, I want to be a living sacrifice, shaking from my life all that is temporal and selfish so only that that which is eternal and godly may remain and be given my undivided attention and resources.
Whatever the cost.
Goodbye for now - Soli Deo Gloria,
