I have learned many things since beginning my Alaska garden. Some relate to gardening and some relate to life. God uses the many hours I've spent there and gardening illustrations to speak truth to me. One such recent lesson I had was on humility.
Our sugar snap pea plants have gotten huge. Like, they're as tall as me. As a result of the largeness of these plants and the fact that they're climbers, it's been difficult keeping them upright. We've tried a few different types of string to make a "ladder" for them and I've attempted different methods of using the string to make them straight and stay that way. But they're just too heavy. They keep falling over. Now, some have remained straight, but several sections have bent down too far to warrant the effort of bringing them back up.
The other day as we were picking peas, I noticed something. The nice and straight ones had peas on them, yes, but do you know where the abundance of the crop was? Under the bent plants. The ones scraping the ground. That's where the treasure was.
And God showed me something. I can stand straight and tall and look really good and maybe have a little fruit. Or I can bow. Be humble. Bend down. And have an abundance of fruit.
Spiritual fruit doesn't come from looking good, seeming spiritual, or even doing "all the right things". It comes from a heart that humbles itself under the mighty hand of God, receives His grace and allows Him to work in it as He sees fit.
I can seek to always look super spiritual and do it all myself or I can choose to accept and admit that I'm going to fall and need God's grace every step of the way. Those plants kept falling. I'm going to continue to mess up and fail. It's up to me how I respond. In a way that covers it up and acts like I'm still perfect? Or, like the pea plants, will I humbly live in God's grace, bent down, and allow Him to produce an abundance of fruit in my life?
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