This spring I took on a new endeavor of getting a plot in a local community garden. After cooking all winter with 'fresh' veggies and herbs from the store I would have a trash can full of wrappers and a recycling bin piled high with cans. Then it hit me that it would be so cool to take on a garden...until I stood at the edge of the garden for the first time and had to weed the damn thing.
When I visited the plot after some time away an entire forest of greenery had grown around my plants. I knelt on the hard, cracked dirt to pull weeds around my 'harvest.' As I fought off the discomfort of kneeling for a couple hours on a thin piece of foam it dawned on me how unbelievably frustrating this whole thing seems. In the grand scheme of things a 20x20 plot is truly nothing, but doing it alone - and without a clue of what I'm doing - seems damn near impossible.
The ground was tough to break through and the dense weeds appeared to stand taller, as if sticking its chest out in the air to boast that it had beaten me. The moment that I thought I was making progress I looked beyond the three foot radius of my initial assault on the annoying agriculture only to see that I had another 391 square feet to go. It was discouraging, demoralizing and worst of all, painful. I felt alone on a tiny dirt island of doubt thinking that maybe I had taken on too much as I was surrounded by a sea of green leafy weeds.
Near the end of my late afternoon’s work, I arrived at my final plant. A hot pepper plant, standing nearly one foot tall. On it, hidden underneath a flawlessly shaped leaf, was the tiniest little thing that almost resembled a miniature pepper. A pepper that two weeks ago did not exist and around that plant was the intoxicating aroma of the spicy cilantro from nearly three feet away.
When I had finished weeding I watered the little guy and the other sprouting veggies, herbs and melon surrounding it. Then it hit me that maybe, just maybe, all the sweat, pain and sun could be worth it. That even through the pulling of the weeds (that will grow back in a few days) and muscling through the man eating garden spiders and laughing off the old retired men at the plots around me laughing at my attempts to garden, just maybe this will be blossom into a bountiful harvest. An end of summer reward for all the long hours, hot days and frustrating fun in the sun.
Our faith is a lot like my garden endeavor if you think about it. In order to have a great harvest you can't just sprinkle a little water on your plot every once in a while and expect a great outcome; much like you can't pray every once and again to expect miracles or a relationship with God to blossom in your life. In attempting to grow spiritually you will feel weak and intimidated, lost and alone, doubtful and distraught, just as any true warrior of the top soil may feel taking on the forest of constantly growing weeds. Our weaknesses towards certain temptations creep up as quick as those weeds; that no matter how many times you pull them, and no matter what you do to treat them, they always seem to creep their way back.
In Matt we read that the harvest is “abundant but the laborers are few (Matt 9:37).” There is so much goodness for us to receive in our own lives as long as we are following the righteous path and living a life full of love, but so few willing to take on the task. The harvest can be daunting, overwhelming and lonely, much as it was when I first stepped foot in the plot overwhelmed by what stood before me. I went into the task of gardening knowing that I’d pull some weeds, water some plants and boom…I’d have food. But it’s not that easy nor that simple, just like our faith. In our own lives we know exactly what it is we need to do (on paper) to be happy, to love and to get into Heaven, but we still become overwhelmed by the realization that we actually don’t know how to do it properly. The Bible, just like a Gardening for Idiots book, explains to us what to do along the way and how to overcome many different challenges, it’s just a matter of us properly following what has been shared and then applying it daily.
Even the best of gardeners and farmers have a lousy harvest from time to time and even the most disciplined of theologians struggle spiritually. It’s just a matter of us trying to keep those pesky weeds and weaknesses at bay by getting to them at their roots. And to do more than just sprinkle a little water from time to time or pray when we only want something. We must overcome the weeds in our lives and love daily, even through the hate, the disgust and the pain. It is then, and only then, that along our path we may see the fruits of our labors and see how truly abundant the harvest truly is. It just takes overcoming one weed at a time.
But we must always remember that no matter how many weeds surround our harvest and no matter how much we must endure to see the fruits of our labor
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