Gardening... and Other Acts of Faith

What's Working in YOUR Garden?

What audacity to sow small, unremarkable seeds into wet dirt and expect to fill bellies and canning jars with the results! But that’s been my steady experience for over thirty years. That is, until 2022…

Overnight, my lush green bean plants and delightful dill went from growing and growing to GONE!

The Woodchuck Salad Bar

It seemed as if all my thorough weeding and tending were just an advertisement to the local wildlife.

Having experienced an almost total garden failure, I’m approaching this year’s tilled earth with a lot more respect and a dash of cynicism. Will the pea seeds that are swelling in neat rows after two days of rain going to have the opportunity to sprout? Or have I simply spread a feast for the chipmunks who live under the henhouse?

Leaning into the Memory of Fruitfulness

This is when gardening becomes an act of faith. I’m remembering years of faithful partnership with God, years when I planted green beans and harvested them by the bushel basket. I’m recalling the squash “finger paint” smeared across high chair trays and reminiscing about canning jars full of beets and pickles lining basement shelves and glistening their bright colors under the light of a bare bulb.

And so, in an act of audacious faith, I’m going to plant again—in spite of the Year of the Woodchuck! Actually, given the rural, wooded location of this country hill, it’s a miracle that we haven’t lost more gardens!

Just like you, we’ve experienced our share of other losses and disappointments over the years:
* Ministry goals are wispy things, hard to nail down.
* Kids take turns sitting at the top of a prayer list (as you work hard to keep it from becoming a “worry list!”)
* The demands of a chronic illness consume energy needed elsewhere.

This is the moment for audacity! Leaning into the memory of past fruitfulness and God’s faithfulness, let’s plant our seeds, both literally and spiritually.

Living in Audacious Faithfulness

I’ve been encouraged by a healthy response to recent articles I’ve shared and by an invitation to speak to the women of Owls Head Baptist Church for their Mother’s Day brunch.

Meanwhile, I’m working hard on committing Colossians 1:9-12 to memory so I can pray the words while I’m planting and weeding and watering and… dare I say harvesting?

“…that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.” 

I’ve created a free guided meditation to help you commit these words to memory along with me. IT’S RIGHT HERE if you’re interested.

And I’m curious…
What’s working for you this spring?
In your garden?
In all your acts of audacious, faithful seed planting?

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Thanks so much for reading!

Holding you in the light,