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| I can't get enough of this view! |
Two years ago (today, actually) my husband and I saw our house for the first time. It was a perfect fall day, much like today, and we fell in love with it immediately. We moved in in January and that spring we tried to plant our first garden at our new house. We were acclimating to new job responsibilities and caring for a two-year-old and a newborn, so needless to say, details like garden preparation didn't get a lot of attention.
When we did pick up a few plants, I made the mistake of trying to cultivate what had previously been a horse corral. I thought that the soil would be rich from years of manure working into it and loose from horses' hooves turning it over. Unfortunately, the ground was packed so hard that the plants were always either sitting in little pools of water or completely dried out. They didn't stand a chance.
At the end of the season, we chose a different location and did some prep work, but this year's spring was unusually warm, and my plants once again, didn't thrive. Maybe next year, I thought.
But then something happened. A vine started growing out of our compost pile. It snaked its way through the weeds and tomato plants, putting tendrils down as it went.
First there were blossoms. And then, surprisingly, butternut squash everywhere!
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| Like this |
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| And this |
This may not seem all that exciting, but I have a recipe for butternut squash risotto that is one of the few relatively healthy foods that all four people in our house will eat with enthusiasm. We love butternut squash! I usually buy at least one a month. And now, suddenly here they were, growing in our front yard!
And here's the thing that really floored me. I did nothing to make that vine grow. I didn't even plant it! I never watered it. I didn't coax it along from seed to seedling to thriving plant. All I did was just go out every now and then to admire its vigor and health.
Being a Pastor
I have to admit...I was a little surprised when I became a pastor. I wanted to be a "marrying, burying" pastor. I wanted to share in the celebrations and grief of families. I wanted to cheer for teenagers playing football and marching in the band on Friday night and for their little brothers and sisters playing little league baseball on Saturday mornings. I wanted to sit around bonfires on summer evenings and talk about everything from God to good barbecue.
I thought I was planting myself in rich soil by becoming a small-town pastor.
But, as it turns out, my picture of the world was a little outdated. These things are still happening in small-town America--weddings and funerals, football games and little league, bonfires and barbecues--but a good number of people have figured out that they don't really need the church for any of these things.
It turns out that this soil is not as rich as I thought.
But as I've spent the summer watching in amazement as this incredibly productive vine grew out of the place where we throw our food scraps, it's occurred to me that sometimes the most amazing things grow out of the most unexpected places.
Cultivating Spaces
It's worth noting that we did some work to cultivate our garden. We built the compost bin. We laid down newspaper and manure and mulch to create a space where plants can thrive.
This might be a good lesson for this pastor. My job is to create a space where things can grow. My job is not to cajole and manipulate and coax people and programs to maturity. My job is to faithfully cultivate the space and then to let God bring the growth. Even to let God decide what grows.
I had some other plants besides that butternut squash. A zucchini plant that produced one zucchini and then mysteriously wilted. A cucumber plant that started off ambitiously enough but amounted to nothing. Pepper plants that didn't do much at all. Quite a few fairly successful tomato plants.
But it is obvious that the conditions were perfectly suited for that butternut squash. I never would have guessed that.
Pastors spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to define success, measure success, achieve success... It can all lead to a lot of frantic effort. But when the right plant is growing in the right soil, all the gardener has to do is celebrate the results (and maybe try to keep the weeds at bay).
I am praying for the wisdom to cultivate a space where God can grow something. Something that will be healthy and thrive. Something that will produce fruit that is a source of nourishment to all who encounter it.
If God can grow a butternut squash out of my compost pile, then I think God can probably grow something pretty magnificent out of a group of faithful Christians working diligently to cultivate a space where the Holy Spirit is free to move.
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| The first few |
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| So many! |
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| This tasted as good as it looks! |
