Spiritual Growth

This morning I stood in front of my new community garden long box and thought about what I would soon plant. These are my joys in gardening:

• planning a garden

• buying plants

• getting them in the ground

• cutting flowers to brighten my home

• enjoying and sharing the food my time and care have produced

These are the less than joyful things:

• watering

• weeding

• waiting

Any gardener will tell you, feeding and watering a plot will nurture growth in the plants you wish to nourish as well as the weeds you’d rather do without. Welcome plants, those you choose, need to be protected. Weeds, which sneak in unnoticed at first, need to be pulled.

I wasn’t alone in the garden today; one of my fellow gardeners and I chatted, and she pointed out a nearby abandoned box. A man had signed up to cultivate it but abandoned his plot when he discovered that tools, water, friendship, and support were offered—but not someone else to do the required weeding. As he was unwilling to bend and pull, opportunists had overtaken his fertile soil, crowding out room for anything healthy to grow. It was an excellent object lesson. Weeding is arduous; every attentive gardener must do it themselves regularly.

For some reason, weeds are more vigorous than many desired plants. I am an attentive gardener, so I feed, water, and then pluck and yank weeds week after week, throwing them onto a compost heap where they wither and die. It’s hot, hard work, and can’t be left long, but when I’m done, I have a garden I am proud of for others to see and enjoy myself. 

Clearing my soil leaves space for the plants I want to grow. I cultivate flowers that provide beauty for myself and others and produce which nourishes my family, friends, and even strangers. People without homes have been known to stop by our community garden to pluck vegetables or lettuce. I’m happy to share my bounty with those in need (see Hebrews 13:16). 

Spiritual life, too, requires tending if I am to continue growing and maturing in my faith. I must feed it regularly with Scripture, fellowship, teaching, repentance, encouragement, and charity. As the Spirit or others make me aware that weeds have suddenly appeared in my garden (and Scripture tells us who sows when the gardener isn’t watching), I must promptly remove them. If I don’t, they will soon overtake the soul growth I wish to see.

Like the plants in my garden, growing and maturing in the faith takes time, patience, and enjoyable hard work. Although we would often like to, we can’t hurry a garden to grow, nor our spiritual growth. Ripe, nutritious, and pleasing fruit takes time. The Bible encourages us in James 5:7 to “be patient brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You, too, be patient and stand firm.” But that patient farmer isn’t just sitting on the porch watching the crops grow; she attentively weeds, feeds, and waters. With the same intentionality, we also grow and mature in our faith. So then, mature in the faith, we, too, are pleasing and beneficial for the body of Christ, His church.

It’s a strange truth that things that are bad for us are often mixed up with things that are good for us and that the conditions for positive growth—such as drive, determination, piety, success, financial well-being, a thriving career or ministry, and recognition as an influencer of any sort—can also lead to negative growth. Selfishness. Laziness. Legalism. Entitlement or arrogance. Greed. Unkind thoughts. Weeds and desirable plants thrive under the same conditions . . .conditions God, in His goodness, provides (Matthew 13:29Matthew 5:45). 

So while God brings the growth, we must plant, water (1 Corinthians 3:6), and weed. I’m so thankful that as we prayerfully tend the gardens that are our souls, the Spirit helps us discern which “plants” to keep and which to remove. Then, He encourages us to build a garden in which godliness thrives and sin withers.

–Written by Sandra Byrd. Used by permission from the author.