Cultivating the Plot

As my wife and I plan this season's garden, we each have different tasks and dreams. My wife primarily thinks of harvest: What do we want from the garden? How much from the garden? I think in terms of gettin'er done: Where do I plant? When do I plant? How can I use my space and time to achieve our desired end? So we have an end in mind- a plan, and we have drawn them up and ordered the seeds. In another month, I will work the soil on three of our raised beds and cover them in plastic to plant spinach, kale, lettuces and other greens and a few other cold weather crops.

Working the plot involves turning over the soil, adding a little compost if needed (we cover each plot with leaf mulch and other organic material in the fall), and removing any weeds. After the soil warms from the plastic, I will turn the soil again and remove any more weeds and then plant. All this planning and preparation is necessary to enjoy a good harvest at the end.

Isn't this process how any desired end is achieved? Plan, work (making, naming, separating) evaluate and enjoy? Do you see your task as a mother or father as cultivating your plot? What is the desired end for your children? How are your plans carried out?

Enjoying the Task and Enjoying God

This was suppose to be up yesterday- sorry. I am in the process of changing blog sites and didn't get a chance to do all I wanted. My blog site will be up and running very soon.

As I have written before, all we have is from God, and it is given as gift and task. Because ALL is gift this brings to bear two things:

First, is that the ONLY proper way to think, act, live, breathe, etc, is through gratitude. Giving thanks and praise to God for His gifts to us is our primary task. Out of gratitude comes humility, stewardship and generosity. I will be commenting on these in the future, but it is important to know that it is "meet and right to always and everywhere give thanks" to God. If you recognize the quote, it means you come from a church background that properly sees our Eucharist (thanksgiving- Lord's Supper) as the pinnacle and purpose of worship on the Lord's Day. Gratitude and communion go hand in hand, and what is enacted and celebrated on Sunday is meant to direct and carry you throughout the week in all your tasks.

Second, is that all life is lived by faith in the Giver. That means that if you are comparing your lot in life to other people and feel that some injustice has been carried out against you, you need to repent and trust in God once again. ALL is gift from a Giver that loves and knows you. These tasks he has set before you are NOT TOO MUCH for you to bear, neither are they beyond finding joy in them and especially in Him. These tasks are uniquely yours, stop wishing for something else. In EVERYTHING give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus!

I am convinced from Scripture AND experience, that enjoying God, and I mean a real joy that takes place even in the midst of sorrow, comes only when we learn to give thanks to God for all his gifts.

Tending to Our Plot

Everything we are and have has been given to us by God- our life, time, possessions, relationships... everything. God gives us these things as gift and task. In this post, I will speak of these things briefly as task, but on Friday I will post on these things as gift. Since we are in the middle of a conversation, you may want to read this, this, and this, first.

God put Adam in the garden to work- he is to make things, order things, name things, relate to things, people, and God. This is our basic task as well- we tend to all that God has given us. All these things, I call my little plot. If I tend to my plot well, it flourishes, but if I neglect it, all these gifts wither.

This spring, I will plant my garden. Even now we are planning and ordering seeds. I have a great array of choices to make, but until I plan and execute the plan, I will only have a plot of weeds. I can plan for utility, or I can plan for extravagance. I can plan to make things easy or hard, sparse or abundant, plain or beautiful. I have the freedom to do anything the bounds of my plot allows. It is a task I enjoy immensely, yet it is hard. I want to grow an abundance of food, with a great amount of beauty. The pleasure for the tongue and eye is well worth the work.

Of course, you know what I am getting at. All our tasks are like this. Take the task of tending to your family. What are you planning and executing? Aiming for easy? How about beauty? Do you take time to evaluate and pull the weeds? Is your family flourishing? Are the relationships bearing fruit?

Over the next several weeks, I will share my thoughts and experiences with tending to the various facets of this little plot of mine. Until then... get to work!

On Being in the Image and Likeness of Our Creator

I mentioned here that our lives should display the distinctive excellence of God; that is, we should show forth the glory of God in what we do and how we live. We can do this with intent, because of all creatures we are made in the image and likeness of the Creator.

If you take a look at the first couple of chapters in Genesis, you can see the likeness on display. God had a plan, and then made things, ordered them, named them, and evaluated them ("good"/"good"/"very good" and "not good"(for man to be alone))... and so do we! For instance, someone had a plan to make coverings for feet, made them and called them "socks". I bought some, use them, order them in my sock drawer, and determine if they are still good or not. I do this because I am made in the image and likeness of God. God has made us in order that we have dominion over all earth. We make wilderness into a garden. If, from the beginning Man had been faithful to God in carrying out his task, we would still be in Paradise, but because sin entered the world, we have not ordered our world to the glory of God.

So now, in Christ, we are to live our lives in and by faith, taking our little plots and ordering them to and for God's glory. How have you ordered your life? Does it display the distinctive excellence of God? Is your life characterized by truth, and goodness, and beauty? Faith, hope and love?

On Wednesday, I will continue the discussion. Please feel free to comment.

This Little Plot has a Tag Line

Q. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.

This is the first question and answer in the Westminster Shorter Catechism. All Christians; Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Evangelical, Reformed, Pentecostals, and even, dare I say... Baptists (!) should commit this to memory and teach it to their children and their children's children. This one question answers, and answers correctly, THE question: What is the meaning of life? (I can already hear my son ask, "You mean it is not 42?") So my "little plot" is one that seeks to glorify God, and to enjoy Him, both now and forever.

But let me ask, what does it mean to glorify God? Glory is one of those Christian words that is often used, but not well understood. For the purpose of this blog entry, I will focus on and simplify the main concept of glory. Glory is the distinctive excellence of a thing. If you came into my house last August and saw on my back porch 20 good sized and great looking zucchini from my garden, you would assume (besides being crazy to have that much zucchini in my garden) that I was a good gardener. That zucchini is my glory. It displays the distinctive excellence of my gardening abilities. If we are to glorify God, our lives should display the distinctive excellencies of God!

My next post about the Little Plot will talk about more about how this is done.

RE: This Little Plot (1)

My first thought for this blog was "My Little Plot". But as my wife pointed out, this is way too close to My Little Pony, and to avoid mockery, I adapted.

"Plot" is usually taken two ways: a garden, or a story. I intend for it to be about both, and taken literally and figuratively. This (my) plot is both about my garden and my story, as well as about THE garden story that began in Eden (see Genesis 1+2) and ends up in the Garden City (see Revelation 21).

My plot is also "little". This is not to say it is unimportant- all of our plots are important. This is just to say, my plot is simply a "verse" in the grand story (see the post below).

My next post in this category will explain the tag line.