Gardening - Dene's Blog

Weeding the Lilies

6/30/2015 0 Comments

My daylilies have been on a roller coaster ride lately. They bloomed so prodigiously, and multiplied so quickly that ten years ago I had to dig them up from their bed by the grape arbor and replant them thinner, planting another bed behind the shed with some of the extras, and still giving away three five-gallon bucketfuls of bulbs. They bloomed like crazy again, multiplying year by year, until once again they needed thinning.

A few years ago, Keith had to do it for me--after a summer of eye surgeries I was relegated to supervising from a lawn chair. But since then, few have come up and fewer have bloomed. Perhaps we mulched them too well, Keith thought, so he raked off half the mulch this past year to see what would happen. More blooms is what happened, and things seem better. Next year should be another banner year of bright yellow and orange blooms.

I have noticed another thing about these lilies. Even with mulch, the weeds still manage to creep in. The first year I pulled grass till my hands were sore and swollen. Blackberry thorns left them torn and bleeding, even through gloves. The next year I did it again. The third year things were better—most of the weeds were along the edge. By the fourth year two weedings, one at the beginning of the year, and another near the end, took care of it.

Some day, I would like to think that the weeding won’t be necessary at all, but I live in a land of rain and sunshine, warmth even in winter, and humidity that keeps the plants green and moist. Still, it is encouraging to see some progress. I may never have a weed-free flower bed, but at least there are more flowers than weeds these days.

How about me? Am I still pulling out the weeds in my heart? Unfortunately, yes, I am. I do not believe the job will ever be finished. I do believe that there are fewer now than many years ago, and I think I am meant to notice that, that it is not a sign of arrogance to see the improvement in my life. Isn’t encouragement a necessary element to growth?

That old saying, “Humility is the thing that as soon as you think you have it, you’ve lost it,” is ridiculous. How else am I to have the impetus to keep going, especially when the job is unending and obviously so? Why is it wrong to recognize my progress? I might as well listen to Satan as to listen to someone say that.

Several times Paul told the people he wrote that they were doing well, that they had grown, that he was proud of them. James talks about looking in the mirror of God’s word to see myself. Am I only supposed to see the faults and none of the good things? That is exactly what leads people to become so despondent that they quit trying.

“Might as well be hanged for a sheep as a goat,” applies to people who never receive any positive feedback, who are always criticized and told they have done wrong. They think if they are going to receive that kind of response when doing their best, they might as well stop trying so hard. Satan counts on that feeling, and too often we give him the opportunity to make use of it in ourselves and others.

So look at yourself carefully today. Notice the things you still need to work on and do exactly that. But also notice where you have improved and gain some encouragement from it. Maybe the job today won’t be quite so tough. If you have had a difficult time lately, that little bit of encouragement may be the thing that gets you through another day.

For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. 1 Thes 2:11-13.

Dene Ward

Butterflies or Caterpillars

6/23/2015 0 Comments

We’ve all seen those definitions of pessimism and optimism, the classic being the half-empty or half-full glass. As a gardener, I’ve come up with my own.

When you look out over your herb garden, do you see beautiful brightly colored butterflies flitting around, or does your mind’s eye conjure up green caterpillars on naked parsley stems, their leaves stripped away practically overnight? I have a friend who is overjoyed at the sight of a butterfly. I often have a difficult time sharing her joy.

But I recognize the problem. Pessimism can easily turn to cynicism. We want to rationalize that by calling it “being realistic.” But here’s the difference:
Realism understands that you won’t save everyone (Matt 7:13,14). Cynicism doesn’t even try.

Realism knows that you are unlikely to change the mind of that misled young man in the white shirt and tie who knocked on your door with Bible in hand, but it greets him with kindness and respect. Cynicism views him not as a lost soul, but as an adversary and approaches him with sarcasm and downright hatefulness.

Realism knows that perhaps even a majority of those who ask for help at the meetinghouse door are making prey of good-hearted brethren, but it takes the time to politely ask a few questions and determine an appropriate action just in case. Cynicism immediately tars them all with the same brush and sends them on empty-handed, both physically and spiritually.

Realism is compassion tempered with wisdom. “Be ye wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” Cynicism is malice fueled by pessimism. It looks for the worst, it expects the worst, and ultimately it rejoices in finding it. That is about as un-Christlike as it comes.

So watch the butterflies today and enjoy them. You can always check for caterpillars in the parsley later, and then rejoice when you only find a few.

[Love} does not rejoice at unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1Cor 13:6-7.

Dene Ward

Cuculoupes

6/22/2015 0 Comments

We planted the main garden the second week of March. It looks great this year, and I have already put up what we need and more, and shared with people who probably wish I wouldn’t any more.

   When the cantaloupe row came up, which is Keith’s baby, he was happy to see it full with no bare spots. I heard about it the day he saw the first bloom. Then a couple of weeks later he came in with a funny look on his face.

   “Let me show you something,” he said, and I followed him out the door straight to that row of cantaloupes. “Look at those baby cantaloupes.” So I bent over, lifted the leaves and looked, only to discover baby cucumbers instead. He had gone out to plant without his glasses and used up the remains of what he thought was a packet of cantaloupe seeds on the first two hills. Turns out that packet, which did not have a picture let me hasten to add, must have said, “Cucumber.” So the first two hills in the cantaloupe row are cucumbers.

   Is that bad? Well, yes and no. I already had plenty of cucumber hills planted, and these two extra hills are some of the most prolific bearers I have ever seen. I have made my pickles and still my refrigerator is overflowing.

   And it turns out these two hills are the best tasting of the bunch. But since he tossed that empty packet of “cantaloupe” seeds, we have no idea what kind they were. I have been experimenting with new varieties the past two years and these were leftovers from the year before.

   Then there is the fact that his row is two hills short of cantaloupe, which to him is a catastrophe. So what can we learn from all this?

   Well, I doubt he will ever forget to wear his glasses when he plants the garden again. But what about us?

   I suppose the obvious point is this—you will reap what you sow. Thinking it is cantaloupe won’t make cucumber seeds produce them. That old “sowing his wild oats” adage is the stupidest thing I ever heard. All he will get, whoever he is, is wild oats. You don’t “get it out of your system” and think you will produce anything else. “Be sure your sin will find you out.”

   What are you sowing in your children? What do they hear you say? Please do not make the mistake of thinking they do not pick up on sarcastic comments and hypercritical statements, even at a very early age. Children tend to think that everything that goes wrong is their fault, usually because they have to deal with the foul tempers of parents who take it out on them.

   What about their entertainment? What words are being sown in their active little minds? What ideas? What priorities? What character traits? Do you even know what they are watching?

   What about their friends? I have had children in my home whose parents never once called or even darkened my door. One time I had a young man for the whole weekend. He came home with my sons on Friday and we put him on the bus Monday morning! We didn’t mind a bit, but where was his mama?

   What about yourself? What are you sowing? What is your entertainment? What is your reading material? Where do you go and with whom? If you find yourself saying things you never said before, maybe it’s time to change friends. They are sowing more in you than you are in them.

   Check the seed packet this morning before you go out. Check it again when you come in. Make sure you are sowing the seed of the Word of God, not only in your friends, but in your children, and in yourself. And put on your glasses when you do.

For they sow the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind…Sow to yourself in righteousness, reap according to kindness…Hos 8:7; 10:12.

Just a note here. We have recently discovered that some of our articles on the right sidebar have been deleted. We are not certain when or how this happened. Please bear with us as we try to put three years worth of work back together, and if you have any suggestions or ideas, they are welcome!

Dene Ward

As the Butterfly Goes

6/3/2015 0 Comments

My big flower bed on the south side of the shed attracts butterflies by the score. Every day I see both white and yellow sulfurs, tiny blue hairstreaks, huge brown and yellow swallowtails, and glorious orange monarchs and viceroys flitting from bloom to bloom. Sometimes it’s hard to tell where the bloom stops and the butterfly begins amid all those big yellow black-eyed Susans, multicolored zinnias, and purple petunias.

   But have you ever watched a butterfly? If you and I decided to go somewhere the way a butterfly goes, it would take all day to get there. We have a saying: “as the crow flies,” meaning a straight line course. A butterfly couldn’t fly a straight line no matter how hard it tried—it would always fail the state trooper’s sobriety test.

   Some of us live our spiritual lives like butterflies. We seem to think that waking up in the morning and allowing life to just “happen” is the way to go. No wonder we don’t grow. No wonder we fail again and again at the same temptations. No wonder we don’t know more about the Word of God this year than last, and no wonder we can’t stand the trials of faith.

   Some folks think that going to church is the plan. That’s why their neighbors would be surprised to find out they are Christians—Sunday is their only day of service. Others refuse to acknowledge any weakness they need to work on. It rankles their pride to admit they need to improve on anything, and because they won’t admit anything specific, they never do improve.

   Some folks make their life decisions with no consideration at all for their spiritual health, or the good of the kingdom. The stuff of this life matters the most, and only after that do they give the spiritual a thought, if at all, and it is to be dismissed if it means anything untoward for their physical comfort, convenience, status, or wealth.

   The only plans they have for their children is their physical welfare—how they will do in school, where they will go to college, what career they will pursue. They must get their schoolwork, but their parents don’t even know what they are studying in Bible classes, much less make sure they get their lessons. It’s too much trouble to take them to spiritual gatherings of other young Christians. And have you seen how much those camps cost?! Probably less than a year’s worth of cell phone service and much less than the car they buy those same kids.

   Where is the plan for this family’s spiritual growth? Where is their devotion to a God they claim as Lord? If their children do end up faithful, it will be in spite of these parents, not because of them.

   God expects us to have a plan. The writer of the seventeenth psalm had one. “I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress,” he says in verse 3, and then later, “I have avoided the ways of the violent, my steps have held fast to your paths,” (4b,5a). He made a vow and he kept it. He mapped his life out to stay away from evil and on the road to his Father.

   How are you doing as you fly through life—and it does fly, people! Are you flitting here and there, around one bush and over another, out of the flower bed entirely once in awhile, then back in for a quick sip of nectar before heading off in whichever direction the wind blows? Or do you have a plan, a map to get you past the pitfalls with as little danger as possible, to the necessary stops for revival and refreshing, but then straight back on the road to your next life?

   Do you know what the term social butterfly means? It’s someone who flits from group to group. Perhaps not so much now, but originally the term was one of ridicule. I wonder what God would think of a spiritual butterfly who has no focus on the spiritual things of this life, but flits from one thing to other and always on a carnal whim rather than a spiritual one. I wonder if He would think that butterfly wouldn’t be able to appreciate an eternity of spiritual things either.

…And [Barnabas] exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith... Acts 11:23,24.

Dene Ward

A Handful of Wildflowers

6/1/2015 0 Comments

Every afternoon following our midday meal, we walk our property, counting new blooms on the roses, smelling the jasmine, looking beneath those large scratchy leaves for new squash blossoms. Usually I end up with a handful of wildflowers, blooms so tiny I cannot see them until Keith hands me one I can pull up close.

Do you know what I see? Blooms of all colors--red, pink, blue, white, yellow, orange, purple in all shades and combinations—and shapes—bells, tubes, bowls, cups, stars with five or six points, some flared, some rayed, some as complex as orchids. And did you know that even the stems are different? Some are wiry, some are leafless, some are hairy, some sprawl and others stand up straight, and some are square! Some of these flowers are exquisite, but most of us don’t know that. We’ve never taken the time to bend over and really look.

   A long time ago a woman who has since become a close friend, told me that looking across the pews at Keith had made her think he was stern and unapproachable, and so she had decided to make it a point to get to know him. It wasn’t really Keith’s fault. He has large, piercing blue eyes that look like they’re boring into you, a strong Roman nose, and a voice that, because he is profoundly deaf, is always in projection mode. Even when he isn’t, he often sounds disapproving, and is always loud, which is often translated “angry.” A lot of people just go with that first impression. This woman did not, and she proclaimed that year of getting to know him “delightful.”   I wonder how many others have missed out on that delight, how many have formed an opinion, and kept it despite what others might have said.

   How many do we overlook? The elderly because we think them dull and uninteresting? The teenagers because we’ve branded them all shallow and naïve? The disabled because we think they have nothing to offer? The scholarly and intellectual because we think those dry old men can’t possibly know how to have any fun? The ones who seems so well put-together because we think they wouldn’t possibly want anything to do with “someone like me?” None of these judgments is fair.

Jesus told the Jews, “Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment,” John 7:24. Maybe I should take the time (sacrifice) to bend over (be humble) and examine (make some effort) a few wildflowers out there, instead of passing over them (negligence) as if they weren’t worth my trouble (arrogance). When I think of it that way, I finally understand why judging by appearance is NOT righteous.

But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” 1Sam 16:7                                 Dene Ward

Pot-bound

5/28/2015 1 Comments

In our quest to diligently teach our children, I think we often overlook something. We care for our children, nurturing both body and soul. Our task, though, is to work our way out of the job. If my thirty year old child still cannot dress himself, or needs to be reminded to brush his teeth, I have failed miserably. In the same way, our children cannot make it to Heaven on our spiritual coattails.

            It is often difficult for a parent to realize that his child’s faith should be his own, not an exact replica of his. A child who does nothing but ape his father’s opinions has, like the Jews of Isaiah’s day, a faith which is a commandment of men learned by rote, Isa 29:13, rather than learned by personal study, meditation, and conviction.

            Both of my sons have slightly differing views from mine about some passages of scripture. I’m glad. It means they have taken root on their own and, though there is never any guarantee, I feel much more optimistic about their remaining faithful when I am gone. If you remember the story of the orange tree my mother-in-law gave us, which rooted itself while we were trying to find a place to put it, here is yet another application: children need to have a little freedom in their quest for spirituality, freedom to spread their own roots. Parents who demand exact conformity, treating any difference as a sign of disrespect, are spoon-feeding their children’s spirituality while at the same time stunting their growth. They might as well be carrying them off the ground in a black plastic nursery pot so their roots won’t branch out. Sooner or later they will become pot-bound and die.

            While you expect to shape their values and instill basic concepts of spirituality and faith, God expected that they would ask, “Why?” and that you would give them real and sensible answers. “Because I said so,” does have an appropriate time and place in teaching them authority, but not in teaching the word of God. If you cannot tell them why, then when you are gone why should they continue?

            Encourage them to study and develop on their own. Treat their discoveries as equally interesting as yours. You may think Paul wrote Hebrews and they may not. You may believe the three-person interpretation of the Song of Solomon and they may prefer the two-person. You may look at Romans 7 as any man without Christ, while they believe Paul is talking about himself before his conversion. Isn’t it great? You will most likely have an eternity to discuss these things together and with the authors themselves, while the parents who demanded absolute conformity and automaton feedback, may find themselves looking around, wondering where their children are.



And the people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, on the east border of Jericho. And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, did Joshua set up in Gilgal. And he spoke unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? Then you shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. For Jehovah your God dried up the waters of the Jordan from before you, until you were passed over, as Jehovah your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up from before us, until we were passed over; that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of Jehovah, that it is mighty; that you may fear Jehovah your God for ever. Josh 4:19-24.

Dene Ward

Putting Down Roots

5/26/2015 1 Comments

Keith’s mother once gave him a tiny orange tree, maybe six inches tall, which she had planted from seed into a coffee can. He brought it home, transplanted it into a black plastic nursery pot and set it next to the shed, continuing to water and feed it until he could find a permanent place for it.

   It had grown to a height of three feet when he finally decided where to put it. Bending down, he grabbed the pot with both hands and tugged. Nothing happened. The tree had made its own decision, its roots bursting through the bottom of the pot and digging their way firmly into the ground. It’s still there, now over twice as tall as the shed and bearing fruit nearly year round.

   Our children are like that little tree. Wherever you leave them is where they will put down roots. The atmosphere you raise them in, the people they spend the most time with, the friends they make and the activities they participate in, whether you are aware of them or not, will all have their effects on your children and will influence who they eventually become.

   Children are growing every minute of every day, not only in body, but also in mind. You cannot set them aside until you have more time, you cannot leave them on their own without guidance, you cannot give them into the charge of another whose belief system does not match yours and still expect your children to follow in your footsteps. You cannot tell them, not even with all the sincerity you can muster, “Just wait till I finish this degree; just wait till my career is more established; just wait till I can pay off all these bills I ran up, then I will be a good parent to you.” If nothing else, you are teaching them exactly what is most important to you--career, status, “things.” Meanwhile, they may put down their roots in places you wish they never knew of, with people you wish they had never met, and develop a character that may appall you.

   “Where did they learn that?” you might wonder. In the place where you left them while you were too busy to be a parent.

Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.
It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.
Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth.
Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate,
Psalm 127.

Dene Ward

Amaryllises

4/20/2015 0 Comments

Mine are blooming now, everything from deep pure red, pale pink and bright apricot, to stripes of white on all three; pink throats on a pristine white, or white throats on deep orange or red. They are gorgeous, but sometimes they don’t bloom, and that leaves me disappointed, usually with half the bulbs every year. So I decided to find out what keeps amaryllises from blooming to see if I could remedy the problem. Here is what I discovered and what I extrapolated.

Amaryllises will not bloom in full shade. They may not need full sun, especially in this sub-tropical environment, but they need enough light to draw that big thick stem up out of the bulb and through the soil and mulch.

   The New Testament tells us we need the Light too. John says that as long as we walk in the light, we won’t stumble (1 John 2:9-11). It variously calls us sons of light and children of light; it says we are “of the day not the night.” And because we have that Light and live in it, we then become “the light of the world.” Certainly a Christian who does not live in the light will never bloom.

   Amaryllises need sufficient nutrients. Just as a larger animal needs more food, this large flower needs good soil, and ample food and water. Many of my amaryllis bulbs were as big as softballs when they came out of the package, and many of the blooms are broader across than some of Keith’s garden cantaloupes. Especially in this poor sandy soil, we must be sure to supply the proper nutrition if we want anything to come out of it.

   We need nutrition too. Peter tells us to “long for the pure spiritual milk that by it we may grow up into salvation” 1 Pet 2:2. How can we do that if we neglect all the feeding opportunities our shepherds have offered us? How can we do it when we shun the healthy spiritual food and feast on the junk in this life? I have seen many brothers and sisters go hog wild with the organic, all-natural, non-preservative craze when taking care of their physical bodies, yet starve their spirits with skimpy servings and junk food. No wonder their blooms are so scarce and puny.

   This might be surprising, but not allowing them to rest will also keep amaryllises from blooming. You can force blooms at certain times of the year, but then you must prune both the stem and leaves and water them prodigiously until they go dormant. Then leave them alone!

   God did not rest on the seventh day because He was tired. He rested because He was finished, but in that rest he also ordained a day of rest for His people. Do you understand what that means? In that ancient time, the common people lived hand to mouth and they worked sunup till sundown seven days a week just to survive. But not God’s people. As long as they observed their commanded Sabbath, He made sure they had plenty. God knows what you need and sometimes you need to rest. It may no longer be a religious observance, but it is certainly a matter of health. And rest doesn’t mean going on a vacation that leaves you more worn out than rested. It means a day with no schedule, no stressful situations, nothing hanging over your head that “just has to be done.” Spend some time with your family—just one full day a week, any day—rest your body and your mind, and talk of the blessings God has given you all, especially the time you have to be together because He has taken such good care of you.

   And this last one really surprised me. If you take your amaryllis bulbs out of the ground and store them in the refrigerator, you should not store them with apples. Apples will make an amaryllis bulb sterile, or so I have been told. Apples? Apples are good things, right? But even things that look good can make a plant sterile and unproductive it turns out.

   Haven’t you seen the same thing happen to Christians? They become so involved in things of this world, good things, that there is no time left for producing the fruit God wants from us. Or they hang around with people who are not their spiritual brothers and sisters to the point that what matters most to those people becomes what matters most to them. Other people, people who do not understand that we are to encourage one another and build one another up spiritually, who care nothing for the spiritual warfare we are involved in, who would, in fact, think you are nuts to even talk about such a thing, can hinder your productivity for the Lord.

   So take a look at your amaryllises today if you have them. Think about the things that affect those gorgeous blooms. See if any of them are affecting you too.

And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful, Titus 3:14.

Dene Ward

Pruning

3/25/2015 0 Comments

Our late winter/early spring gardening chores include pruning. Pruning is serious business. If you do it at the wrong time and in the wrong way, you can kill a plant. But correct pruning encourages healthy growth, more flowering, heavier fruit yields, and in general, better looking plants. Correct pruning can also scare you to death.

If Keith had not had an experienced friend show him how to prune the grapes, he would never have done it correctly. Light pruning does not promote fruiting on grape vines. It takes a heavy-handed pruner, one who knows exactly how far down which vines to cut—and it is much farther than you would ever expect—to make vines that in the late summer provide both greater quantity and quality of grapes.

   Roses also benefit from good pruning. Every January or February (remember that we are talking here in Florida before you follow this to the letter) you should cut off 1/3 to ½ of the mature canes, plus all dead or dying branches, as well as those that cross or stray out of the general shape of the bush. That is how you get more flowers and larger blooms, and healthier, prettier bushes altogether.

   God believes in pruning too. John 15 is full of the imagery of pruning grape vines, cutting off those that no longer produce and throwing them in the fire, which just happens to be where we throw all our prunings as well. God has done a lot of pruning throughout history.

   The wilderness wandering was nothing but one big pruning exercise. All the faithless, those men of war responsible for the decision not to take the land, had to die, and a new generation be prepared. Do you realize that if you only count those men, on average throughout those forty years, 40 men died every day? That does not count the people who died of accident, disease and childbirth, and the women and priests who simply died of old age. Every morning the first thing on one’s mind must have been, “Who died yesterday?” Those people must have done nothing but bury the dead every single day for forty years. No wonder they moved so often.

   Then there was the Babylonian captivity. Ezekiel worked for seventy years preparing the next generation to return to the land as a righteous remnant while the older one died off. Pruning made them better, stronger, and more able to endure those months of rebuilding, and the years that followed.

   And what else was it but pruning that made God cut off some branches (Jews) and graft in others (Gentiles)? They were broken off because of their unbelief, Paul says in Rom 11:20, and then goes on to say that if God will prune the natural branches, he will certainly prune those that had been grafted in if their faith fails.

   God still prunes. We tend to call it by other metaphors these days—refining our faith as gold, Peter says in one of those passages. “Discipline” the Hebrew writer calls it, adding that the Lord only chastens those he loves. But all these figures mean the same thing. Pruning can be painful. The best pruning shears are the sharp ones, for the wound will heal more quickly the cleaner the cut.

   We carry a lot of deadwood on us that God has to whittle away through the trials and experiences of life, and with our own growth in the knowledge of the Word as we learn what is and is not acceptable to God. It is up to us to use that pruning, shedding the dead wood and cultivating new growth, bearing more fruit, higher quality fruit, and more beautiful blooms. If I am not growing I can expect nothing more than my whole vine to be cut off and cast into the fire.

   We want to be that productive grape vine with fruit so heavy and juicy we almost break from the sheer weight of it. We want to be the rose that brings the oohs and aahs, whose perfume wafts on the breeze to all those around us. We must submit to the pruning of the Master Gardener, glorying in His work in us, no matter how painful, so that we can “prove to be his disciples,” John 15:8, faithful to the end.

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit, John 15:2.

Dene Ward

Good Enough

3/10/2015 0 Comments

We just spent $90 on dirt. We live in the country. At that rate the top six inches of our 5 acres is worth about a $125,000.
   My herb garden had a few problems last year. When your perennial rosemary cannot seem to top six inches and all of your super-easy-to-grow basil and parsley die despite watering and fertilizing, you begin to suspect it has more to do with the ground than the color of your thumb.
   So Keith spent a weekend recently digging out the whole bed. Then he bought landscaping timbers, Miracle-Gro garden soil and Black Kow composted manure to fill it with. This bed will grow in spite of itself, yet I could not help but think, “Ninety dollars for dirt!”
   “No,” he told me, “ninety dollars for all those better meals we will eat due to the flavoring and nuance of home-grown fresh herbs—plenty for a change, instead of a rationed amount.”
   My old herb garden was good enough. We ate a lot of good meals out of it, but it was beginning to falter. It needed a little help to improve.
   Too many times we are satisfied with “good enough” in our lives as Christians. The number of times we meet with our brethren, the amount of time we spend studying and praying, the amount we give in both time and money to spread the Gospel and to help those in need may very well be “good enough.” I am not one of those to take the passage “To him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him that is sin,” and use it as a hammer to pound feelings of fear and inadequacy into people who are doing their best.
   So you stopped your Bible study last night after just an hour so you could play with your children awhile. You know what? That is okay.
   So you missed Sunday evening services this week because your widowed mother is gravely ill and it’s your only chance to take a turn sitting with her. That is fine. Our choices are not always between good and bad, but between good and better, and it is an individual decision you must make for yourself. No one has the right to judge.
   In fact, you may indeed be doing as much as you possibly can. The problem is the attitude that looks for nothing more than “good enough.” When one has that attitude, he isn’t.
   As Christians we are slaves to God, we are living sacrifices. Neither of those words gives us the right to decide that “enough is enough.” We are always looking for ways to improve ourselves, for ways to grow, for ways to become more and more like God. That might mean that we must do a lot of extra work here and there (like a slave), and spend more in time and resources (like a sacrifice) in order to improve. But slaves want to please their masters more than themselves, and sacrifices are not sacrifices if they are cheap and easy. We don’t want to be “good enough;” we want to be the best!

Even so you also, when you shall have done all the things that are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which it was our duty to do. Luke 17:10.

Dene Ward