"We must cultivate our garden." with apologies to Voltaire

Rector’s Rambling July 2011
Weeding seems to consume most of my July every year. As I was crawling along on all fours earlier this week, it occurred to me that life is a lot like weeding the garden, and so I offer these few mid-summer reflections:
1. CIVILIZATION IS LIKE A WELL WEEDED GARDEN, IT USUALLY DISAPPEARS BY DEGREES, NOT IN ONE CATASTROPHIC EVENT. I recently attended a funeral ( or was it a graduation, the story is the same) where people were dressed in ways that could only be described as grungy, and where general behavior failed to lend the proper dignity to the occasion. I don’t remember waking up one morning and seeing large numbers of people in torn jeans or tee shirts without proper undergarments at what had once been considered formal, or at least “dress up” functions. Neither do I remember getting up one morning and seeing three foot specimens of Queen Ann’s Lace growing in my runner beans. It happened by degrees because we stopped doing the little things which show respect to other people and lend dignity to special occasions. Perhaps if we all started with small things, like saying “please” and “thank you,” we could at least get back to business casual or better as a way of showing respect for special days and special people.
2. PEOPLE TEND TO VALUE THINGS THEY HAVE TO WORK FOR. Peas are a precious commodity to me. They are probably one of the most labour intensive crops in my garden. I generally share tomatoes, and green beans, and even my glorious Yukon gold potatoes; but almost never my peas. They involve too much work to think that someone might leave a few on the plate at the end of a meal. It is easy to take things for granted if we don’t work hard for them- things like our church, our town, and our friendships. It would be a better world, a more invested world, if we all looked at our schedules and determined to work hard, even sacrificially, in one area of our community life which impacts others in a meaningful way.
3. SOMETIMES, YOU HAVE TO LET A BIT OF THE BAD GROW ALONGSIDE THE GOOD. The aforementioned peas are a case in point. Garden peas have very shallow root systems. Pulling up deep rooted perennial weeds in the vicinity of peas often uproots the pea plant as well. Sometimes it is better to trim the weed that the pea plant might live. It is the same with people whom God has not finished with quite yet. (I think that includes all of us!) A little patience and a willingness to tolerate mixed results in the short term can bring real blessings in the end.
4. EVEN WHEN I WORK HARD, THINGS DON’T ALWAYS WORK OUT THE WAY I HAD HOPED THEY WOULD. I weeded faithfully this year, built trellises, and purchased good seed. The first two plantings of beans, and the first planting of peas still rotted in the ground from too much rain. And so I tilled and planted again. Like is a lot like that. Sometimes our plans don’t work out, but persistence and hard work generally pay off. Life is filled with “unforeseen occurrences” but the general principles remain the same. If we love God and those among whom he has placed us (even the ones we don’t like), if we work hard and in harmony with the principles of God revealed in Nature and the Bible, we are much more likely to have a good life than if we try another method.
5. THERE WILL ALWAYS BE ANOTHER WEED THIS SIDE OF HEAVEN. I started pulling weeds in March and will stop about the end of February. So in life there will always be another aggravation, another sinful failure, another temptation, another problem, another issue, another person who refuses to be helpful just because that’s the way they are. But we who eat the Flesh of God, we who drink His Blood, we who are Signed by the Cross and Marked as Christ’s own forever, know that God’s grace is sufficient for the work at hand, and that one day we will reign with Him in glory.
6. AMEN, AND AMEN!

Sincerely,
Bill+