February 12, 2011
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What are you growing in the garden that is your life?
I don’t know a great deal about farming but you don’t have to know much to know that the crops that grow are a result of the seeds the farmer planted. I am pretty sure no farmer just throws a bunch of seeds out on his or her fields and then sits back waiting to see what comes up. I did throw wild flower seed on a patch of earth in my yard and waited to see what flowers I would get, but I did know I would get flowers. When it comes to planting seeds that will grow fruit, more planning is necessary. You have to have the right soil, the right amount of sun, the right moisture, and the right distance between seeds if you want maximum productivity from your seeds. Even with no till farming, some consideration goes into what you plant where.
If we are aware that growing fruits and vegetables requires some thought and planning, why do we not give more thought to the seeds we are planting in our lives. The seeds we plant in our thoughts, words, actions, and beliefs will determine the fruits we produce in our lives. Jesus says if you have hated you have killed, if you have lusted you have committed adultery, if you have insulted you have assaulted. It is because when you allow hatred, lust, contempt, envy, revenge or any other hostile though toward another a place to grow in your life you have made it possible for those seeds to grow and produce hostile actions. We tell ourselves it is ok to have those thoughts as long as we don’t express them out loud or act on them but that is like saying it is okay to let the crabgrass grow in the lawn as long as we cut it short no one will know. The truth is the crabgrass will choke out the good grass if we don’t work to weed it out of the yard. We may even begin to believe the crabgrass is what our lawn is supposed to look like.
We all have emotional reactions to others and that is good. The problem comes when we cease to see that person as an equal to us and as a person with their own needs that are as important as our needs. Being angry at what another person has done is a normal response. However, when we use our anger at what happened as an excuse to demean the person and ascribe to them all sorts of evil intent we have planted the seeds to treat that person in rude and hurtful ways. Finding another person to be attractive is a good thing. We may believe looking at another person as an object with the potential to satisfy a need in us is harmless but if we allow the thought to remain unchecked, the person will cease to be a person and will become in our mind an object and we will treat them as an object without concern for their dignity and value as a human being. Lust is not the same as attraction, lust is when we think only of ourselves without care for the other. Giving another person constructive criticism can be one of the greatest gifts we can give them. Insulting a person by attacking the very core of who they are and speaking words intended to wound is as bad as physically attacking them, in some ways it is worse because physical wounds will heal faster than emotional wounds. Anytime we let our own needs blind us to the personhood of another, we have planted the seeds that will grow into demeaning, hateful, exploitive fruits. And these fruits don’t just affect our relationship with one person, they take over our garden just like crabgrass will take over our lawn.
Planting good seeds in our life, like planting good seeds in our garden, requires thought and work. I can assure you if you don’t think about the seeds falling on the ground of your garden, you are more likely to produce weeds than fruits and vegetables. You have to look for the seeds you want to produce the fruit and vegetables in your garden. You have to seek out the behaviors and words you want in your life too. You can search the sacred texts to find the seeds and you can look at the lives of people you see producing the fruits you want and get your seeds from them. I think a good seed to start with for your garden is, “do to other people what you would want them to do to you.” When you start to talk about another person, think how you would feel is someone was saying this about you. When you are ready to tell someone else off, think about how you would respond if you were spoken to in this way. When you think about another person as a object, think about how it feels to be treated as an object. Once you have found some seeds you want to plant in your garden, you have to remember they do nothing until you plant them in fertile soil. Having the golden rule hanging prominently in your house, having the Bible on your book self will grow nothing in your life unless you apply them. It is also a good idea to make sure your seeds get adequate light and water if you want them to grow. I believe the seeds of our life get light when you take them out share them with others, examine how they are making a difference in the way we live. I think we water and feed our life seeds by celebrating them. Our seeds of faith grow when we gather together to worship with others. We water them when we go back to the source and refresh ourselves from the words or actions we found in the sacred texts or the life of a person we admire.
I think most people who plant a garden take great pleasure in visiting it regularly and checking on the progress of their crops. They linger in the garden looking for weeds that are sprouting up and plucking them out before they can choke out the good plants and before they can produce bad fruit and spread its seeds further in the garden. The gardener senses all is well as good fruits and vegetables ripen in their garden. We too should regularly examine the garden that is our life to see what is growing there, to look for hostile thoughts that have sprouted there and pluck them out before they can produce fruit or spread their seeds. We should look to see what our garden is producing in us. Are we feeling contentment, are we at peace, are we in loving relationships with those around us? Planting a good garden will feed us for the rest of our lives. Amen.
