August 19th, 2010
One of the rewards of gardening is growing and eating your own food. There are few things that can compare with sitting down at the table and knowing that the peppers garnishing the peas and the slices of tomatoes alongside the bowl of spinach all were planted, nurtured and harvested out of the garden in the back yard. Of course my two little plots do not have much room for little else than tomatoes, peppers and a few varieties of herbs. Still, there are few things better tasting than a homegrown tomato. Can I get an amen?!
I figured my tomatoes averaged about forty dollars apiece, which does not include my labor in planting, staking, tending, watering, fertilizing and chasing away pests like hornworms, squirrels and other varmints. I certainly did not garden to save money. A church member reminded me that it was still cheaper than paying a therapist, which I concede is a good point.
I have had some nice surprises during this otherwise abysmal harvest season. Early in the summer I noticed a couple of vines growing volunteer (meaning I did not plant them but they came up compliments of last year’s compost). At first I thought the vines were cucumbers, but as the blooms gave way to fruit they looked gourds. Finally the shape was unmistakably that of cantaloupe. While my tomatoes ran forty dollars apiece, I have four cantaloupes for free. This is not quite a wash, but I will take it.
By next spring I will get over my failures in “the back forty” and plant again. In fact soon I will replace the summer crop with a winter one - collards and cabbage. Gardening is something one must do not merely for the end result - the harvest - but the journey or the process. There are other comparisons in life: we parent knowing there is really never a time we are finished (even though we may feel like giving up); one goes to work each day hopefully not just because retirement will come, but the satisfaction of doing a job that contributes to society if not creative; and following Jesus is not simply about getting to heaven, but believing the path here on earth will be fulfilling too.
Why do you follow the Carpenter? Is it for the end results of eternal rewards or for the assurance of immediate gratifications like protection, peace, and a better parking place? There are many reasons - explicit and implicit - that Christians give for following Jesus. Perhaps there is none better than simply trusting that the journey is its own reward. In all of our bumps, bruises, disappointments, surprises and joys along the way, God is faithful. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. (2 Corinthians 9:8)
Sometimes in life you go looking for tomatoes and in up finding cantaloupe, and life is good.
Peace be with you,
August 10th, 2010
This past Monday was a “Last First” for us, well for our oldest son anyway. It was his last first day of school. Beginning with Kindergarten he has had for the last thirteen years a monumental first day of school and now that he is a senior he observed his last first day of school. I thought about this as both boys were eating cinnamon rolls that we bake, always on their first day of school. This will not be his last cinnamon roll of course, but it will be his “last first.”
Once you become a parent the seasons mark by school take on a heightened significance. I remember holding his nervous little hand walking with him to his kindergarten class and thinking to myself, “this school is too big for my small son.” Now both of my sons seem too big for any school to contain their dreams and ambitions. The school bus no longer stops for them because they drive to school. It has been years since either one of them brought home a drawing to post on the refrigerator. I am no longer invited to eat lunch with them in the cafeteria. There have been many “last firsts” along the way; I just did not always know it or recognize it.
This is the way of life. Things come and move and have their being and then are no more. Life cannot be frozen or halted. Children grow up; parents get old; employment changes; friends move and the seasons unfold. In fact growing involves shedding things along the way. Did you know that every five years 100 percent of our atoms turn over and are replaced by new ones? That is basically saying every five years we have a whole new self with no original parts. It is the nature of life to keep on moving. One scientist framed it this way: “We are continually being recreated from dust and returning to dust…we are not things; instead we are processes” (More Than Meets the Eye, Richard A. Swenson, p.18).
How do you see God in your “last firsts”; those places in your life where you are saying goodbye? What do you think is awaiting you? How do you trust God in these places of transitions? These are big questions applied in the minute particulars of life. They are also part of the life of any community of faith. No one church can ever be exactly the way it was. That is the definition of death. Rather we are always in a process of becoming.
That is why we need each other in the local church, because together we are on a shared pilgrimage. Together we may confess faithfully: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8) But together we can draw into the mystery: “…forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead…” (Philippians 3:13).
Indeed like seasons of the year and our own bodies we are growing and becoming. In all of our first lasts and endings that give birth to beginnings, may our confessions be that of the ancients: “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (3:22-23)
Grace and peace, now and forevermore.
July 27th, 2010
…that sounds so mysterious, doesn’t it? Well, it is in fact mysterious. Recently I was listening to a podcast where a physicist was interviewed about his ideas of the “consciousness of contemplation” – or something like that!! He kept referring to “dark energy.” “What is dark energy?” I asked out loud to no one in particular, but I was hoping Amy might have an answer. Finally the physicist speaking from my radio answered my question. Dark energy is the most popular way to explain recent observations and experiments that the universe appears to be expanding at an accelerating rate. It is thought that it accounts for 74% of the total mass-energy of the universe. (Thank goodness for wikipedia for convenient statistics!)
The very thought that there is energy out there – that cannot fully be explained, let alone defined – that accounts for most of the energy in the known universe is enough to make one’s neurons pop. A few hundred years ago it was thought that the earth was the center of the universe. Now we know that not only is the earth not the center of the universe, but it is not even the center of the solar system in this galaxy. Furthermore, our galaxy, according to some astronomers, is just one of hundreds of billions of galaxies. Our solar system is more like a suburb among the other galaxies, known and unknown.
The very thought alone draws me into a sense of Biblical awe and reverence. Long before telescopes the Psalmist thought as much. In Psalm 8 David wrote (and no doubt sung) “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?” Again in Psalm 19 we read: “The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge.”
There is so much we do not know. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “Knowledge is knowing that we cannot know.” This is not an excuse for ignorance mind you; just a humble reminder that life is vast and ultimately incomprehensible. We do not know about the future, much less our present. We do not know about how it will all work out with our families, our finances, our health and so on. There is only so much telescopes and microscopes can tell us. The rest is mystery…holy, sacred mystery.
It is not what we know that validates our faith. It is who we know that graces us with peace. Both knowledge and ignorance can shackle us to fear and its sibling anxiety. To rest in the “Name above all names” can set us free.
To the one struggling to find a job…may the peace of Christ hold you.
To the one whose family is a disaster…may the presence of God sustain you.
To the one cowed by the “dark cloud” of anxiety…may the Spirit fill you.
To all of us propelled forward in this expanding universe headed into an uncertain future, may we look up and experience the Word that calls forth creation to live, to love, and to hope.
In Jesus name,
Greg