Recently I was at a funeral. The mother of a friend of mine passed away and there were hundreds of people who came to say their goodbyes and be with the family. The ceremony went on for hours.
On the other, because of the rains that are present throughout every season in Tacoma, where Tina and I have our family home, I have a non-stop battle to fight with weeds that remain the fastest growing and most robust plants I have. They even grow full speed ahead during the winter, when everything else is either dead or taking a break.
I was working on my garden out in front of my house one sunny afternoon, (yes, we do get sun in the Pacific Northwest too!), and as I pulled weeds and replaced them with bright, colorful flowers, something started to shift in me. My heart softened as my nails became caked with rich, black soil. I started feeling as if I was involved in a much grander project or purpose. It was as if I was connecting to the overarching restoration of all things that God has promised to do in our world.
Is my front garden a part of that?
In that moment, it sure seemed like it. The Spirit reminded me that this is how he works within me too, pulling one weed at a time and replacing it with something beautiful. I started to think of all the people I know with weeds and thorny, spiky parts of their personality and life. Maybe I was to be patient and willing to get my hands a little dirty helping to “beautify the garden” of their lives too?
One by one, people from the neighborhood started to notice what I was up to. “Wow! That is looking really beautiful. I just love petunias!” “I was wondering if you were ever going to get around to this project.”
Not the feedback I hoped for, but I’ll take it.
One of the workers from the Salvation Army next door who loves to give me gardening advice, ambled over and said, “This is looking really good. I think I’ll start taking my breaks over here in front of your house from now on.” My flowerbeds were becoming his own little Garden of Eden in the neighborhood. A simple hour or two of gardening had refreshed and re-created my attitude in some pretty profound ways.[clickToTweet tweet=”Maybe everything we work at has a Kingdom perspective if we take the time to notice.” quote=”Maybe everything we work at has a Kingdom perspective if we take the time to notice.”]
Maybe everything we work at is like this if we have that perspective and take the time to notice. There is possibility for redemption all around us.
So, if you’ve been putting off some actual weeding you need to do outside in your garden, or in the garden of your heart or others, the next best time to get started is now.
Not only did those teachers miss the point of the stories (God is always the hero!), but they never taught us that the Bible is one big story.
In fact, it is the Story of God. It’s not a collection of unrelated moralistic tales, nor is it a history lesson. The Bible tells a living and active story that is still unfolding—and we are characters in this story!
Imagine you are trying to put together a large, 10,000-piece jigsaw puzzle.
A lot of time and work would go into getting to the point where you could actually see the picture that the artist intended. But think about how difficult your task would be if you did not have the lid to the box that the puzzle came in. You would have no way to tell what exactly you were trying to piece together.
“Is this a part of the sky or a reflection of the lake? Is this animal fur or a piece of a tree?”
For many of us, this is how we have learned the Bible. It mirrors the process we’ve engaged in to grow in our faith and understanding of who God is and what he is doing. We have heard sermon after sermon, and done one book study after another without really knowing what the big picture of this whole “Christianity thing” really is. Every once in a while, we’ll fit a couple of pieces together and rejoice. And some of us have been around church and the Bible long enough to sort of have all of the “edge pieces” put together, the basic framework of the Bible, but we still do not really know the Bible as one big story. We are not super clear on who exactly God is, what he has done, who we are in light of this, and how we should live.
We do not know the Story of God.
I want to encourage you to move beyond a chapter and verse, flannel graph theology and grab some friends and start going through the Story of God as a community…remember, our goal is not biblical literacy, its gospel fluency, and the next best time to dive deeper is now.
People say to me: “I think my friends may be more open to what I’m learning about God, but I really don’t know how to articulate what I believe...” OR “I rarely talk to friends or co-workers about my faith because I don’t want them to feel like I’m cramming it down their throats...” (Whatever that means?)
Here’s a cool way to share your faith that has never been weird or received poorly by others when I’ve done it like this. (more…)
Growing up as part of the church, there was huge map in the lobby where we worshipped on Sundays–a map of the world with pins all over it. Each pin corresponding to an 8×10 picture next to the map. (more…)
How do we motivate people to develop a lifestyle of discipleship and mission beyond a weekly meeting? Learning how the Gospel changes our motivation is key.
In this episode, Caesar continues his talk on Gospel Motivation and why what we truly believe will become evident by the work of our hands and the patterns of our lives.
