Soul Gardening, Part 2

Now we come to the most dangerous of all the principles of harvesting. It is simply that the harvest occurs at a future time than when we planted.  We can plant things in our soul and think we are getting away with it, but the truth is there will be consequences in the future.  If we plant the seed of anger due to an unresolved relational conflict, months or years down the road we will reap bitterness. In other words, the consequences of choices we make today do not immediately follow the action, but you can take it to the bank that the consequences will come at a later date.

The same is also true if we want to plant things that are beneficial to our soul, but it will take work to ensure a good harvest. We need to nurture and protect the good things as they grow. We need to fight the urge to run to impulsive desires and cling to a patient attitude in order to see the harvest of the good things. We must choose the long view instead of feeding the here and now yearnings. And last but not least, we need to begin to weed our souls by discovering how we planted them and why we continue to water these harmful seeds. Perhaps a prayer of David’s just might help—“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”—and this just makes sense.

Soul Gardening

There are principles in the natural world that we find have corresponding principles in the spiritual world. We all know that if someone plants a watermelon seed in late spring that by summer’s end there will be a plant that produces a watermelon. We can expect to harvest what we have planted. This is a rudimentary law of nature that we witness throughout the year in the physical world. This same natural principle holds true in our inner, spiritual lives as well, but people seem to be reluctant to acknowledge this truth. It has been my experience that many people are stunned when they experience natural consequences of this principle in their lives because they are unable to admit that their previous choices were what landed them in this predicament.

Paul states in Galatians 6:7 “Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.” (NLT) So whatever we find growing in our souls is the result of things we have planted there through our thoughts, attitudes, actions and input. If our life is a harvest of good things, then we have planted the seeds of those things. Unfortunately the opposite is also true. If we have bad things lurking in or souls, then they have grown from the seeds we have planted and watered there.

Perhaps we should take some time to do an inventory of what is growing in the garden of our soul. We need to reflect on how these things began and how we have nurtured them. Then perhaps we can begin to stop feeding those things that do not serve us well and begin to plant and water the good things we long for in our lives—and that just makes sense.

Longings

I think with the exponential growth of social media we can safely conclude that we are hardwired to connect. However, so many people today seem to lack the depth of relationships that they long for. What happens if connecting deeply with a group of friends over a lifetime isn’t truly possible for most? Similarly,our longing for lasting contentment is never truly realized; or our longing for a sense of soul completeness and wholeness never seems to materialize.  We merely get a taste from time to time, but never completely experience it. Why do you think we have so many longings that are fully never satisfied in this life?

Perhaps the ancient writer had it right: “They did not get the things that God promised his people, but they saw them coming far in the future and were glad. They said they were like visitors and strangers on earth.”  Perhaps our longings are intended to keep us moving forward and asking questions and dreaming. Perhaps the here and now was not designed so that every one of our dreams and longings would be fulfilled. Just maybe we should hold this life lightly and not sink deep roots here in the land of half-met longings and instead look, and hope for something far grander than we can even dream.  “But they were waiting for a better country—a heavenly country. So God is not ashamed to be called their God, because he has prepared a city for them.”—and that just makes sense.

The Need For Fences

Long ago I read of an experiment that was conducted during the time of open education– no walls should exist that would interfere with a child’s creative imagination. They decided to remove the fence on the playground so that the kids would not feel penned in and thus stifle their spirit of discovery. When the first recess of the day came, the kids ran outside to play but soon the playground grew quiet as the kids gathered together against the school building, afraid to venture forth and play. What they discovered was that the fence provided a safe environment where the children could truly enjoy playtime.  Perhaps we need the safety of fences to enjoy life.  The absence of laws does not set us free.  It enslaves us to our fears.

So where do these rules or boundaries originate? Surely not from an individual– if individuals make their own rules to follow and a conflict of ideologies occurs, then only the strong, or intelligent or influential one wins. That’s not a society any of us would want to grow up in. Perhaps laws are derived from the community itself– an agreed upon set of boundaries to govern life–but does this really work? Look at the ethnic cleansings of recent times, or the Nazis of a generation past, or countless societies down through history where similar atrocities occurred. Sure they work sometimes but when they don’t, the damage is of epic proportions. 

Perhaps our fences need to come from someone outside of our situation and time in history.  Maybe God does make sense.  Maybe we can begin to heal from the judgmental views of religious people and embrace a God who established fences so that we could enjoy life—“For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Then Jesus will give us rest and safety for our souls—and that just makes sense.

The Road Most Travled

Time and time again it happens—a person is asked to explain their part in some fiasco, and they rewrite history in such a way that they appear blameless. This happens so frequently that it must be a part of our DNA.  We have this amazing ability to see our actions in the past as innocent, or we simply claim that we cannot remember what happened.  It leaves those who were part of the situation wondering if they are even talking about the same event, or it may cause them to consider that maybe they have succumbed to the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s. Even as children our first response to wrong doing was “I didn’t do it.” I think the words of the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah are correct, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”  No one is immune from this moral dilemma.  We all have a tendency to do the very thing we despise in others.  So, is there no hope?

 Perhaps we need help to see the true condition of our hearts, for our hearts are biased and impaired. We need quiet reflection and guidance from the One who inspired Jeremiah to write those words. The Psalmist pleads, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”  This is not navel gazing but a willingness to see what is truly inside of us with no pretense of blaming others or justifying our actions. We need to accept the events as they happened and our first question needs to be, “What was my part in this?” God’s willingness to reveal my heart’s true condition is in direct proportion to my willingness to “own” my thoughts, words, and actions.  Perhaps today you could start with the prayer of the Psalmist and open yourself up to the Great Physician who can heal the core of your soul—and this just makes sense.

Noise Pollution

Socrates said it so well, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” To truly examine one’s life requires silence.  At this time in history we have allowed our lives to be so full of noise that we have no time or desire to question our thoughts, motivations, longings or reactions. I fear we live in a noise polluted world; it is a sensory overload existence that keeps us from truly doing this important work. We drive with music or talk radio filling the air.  We workout with ear buds that blast our favorite music.  After work we grab a quick bite and then sit down to watch our favorite DVR shows on TV, and then go to bed exhausted.  In the moments of silence before sleep takes us, many of us may wonder, “What has gone wrong with our lives?”

What if perhaps “silence is golden”?  What if perhaps we fill our ears with noise so that we don’t have to deal with what is lurking in our souls? What if perhaps we have examined our lives and we don’t like what we find?  Denial and escapism are not the answer.  But, what if we took time regularly to slow down, get quiet and honestly investigate the true condition of your soul?  What if we allowed friends to speak truthfully about what they see within us?   These exercises would provide a new course heading that in turn would lead to a life worth living.   The words of an ancient Hebrew proverb ring true– “Guard your heart above else, for it determines the course of your life.”—and that just makes sense.

We are complex

We are complex physically.  This becomes more and more apparent as we delve into the study of the human body and as we continue to unravel the mysteries embedded within our DNA.   We are complex socially.  The front page of any newspaper bears testimony to a world that’s out of control.  The problems are so big and complicated that the world leaders appear impotent and do not possess the ability to unravel them. We are complex emotionally.  We have a tendency to make mountains out of mole hills. Our problem is that when we ponder the problems we face, we bring to them a myriad of thoughts, feelings, history, reactions, faces, insecurities, and on and on it goes. At times we just want to give up on this thing we call life and put up the white flag of surrender.

What if the problems of the world could be reduced by finding help for the problems within us? The only person I have the power to change is me.  Perhaps the words of Jesus might give us pause and hope—“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” If we would slow down and quiet ourselves, we might sense Him like a warm blanket on a cold evening– wrapped around our souls and giving us hope. Instead of talking to God about how big your problems are, remind yourself of how big God is.  “For nothing is impossible with God.” (Luke 1:27)  “For I can do everything with the help of Christ who gives me the strength I need.” (Phil. 4:13) While sitting quietly let the complicated problems of your soul fall like rain into His lap, meditate on the truth of these two verses, and just maybe you will find rest for your soul—that just makes sense.

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger–

Really?–I wonder if the person who coined this phrase lived in a plastic bubble separated from the rest of the world? I have talked to people who have taken a hard hit and their life was one of bitterness and anger to the end. Others I have talked to have taken a similar hit and their life is one of loneliness and quiet desperation until the day they died. Just because we survive some traumatic event is not a guarantee of becoming stronger, just like growing older doesn’t necessarily make us wiser.

The key to growing stronger and wiser as a result of the storms of life is choice, pure and simple. The choices we make determine the course we will take.  The thoughts we allow to grow in our soul today will over time make us into who we are becoming.  The problem with choice is that our “chooser” seems corrupted in our soul and we continue to make choices that we know are bad. We long to make the healthy choices but history, dysfunction and a myriad of other things get in our way.

That is why the Apostle Paul’s declaration is so important “For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.” Christ didn’t die on the cross so that one day in the future we can have eternal life.  He died so that we could begin experiencing eternal life now.  Followers of Christ can access His strength right now to make choices that breathe His life into our souls. So, before you make any choice, ask Jesus to give you the strength to choose well—that just makes sense.  

The Gift of Simplicity

It has been said that: “It is a gift to be simple” and yet we live in an ever-increasing world of complexity. In the business world each discipline has its own language; in politics its own rhetoric; in media its own bias on events. If that was not enough, we find world problems that seem unsolvable, relational problems that seem irreparable, and personal problems that are paralyzing. These all leave us overwhelmed, worn out, and somewhat hopeless. It truly does seem to be that life is too complex for finite minds such as ours.

Consequently, we have a tendency to turn to pursuits that keep us moving so that the problems do not catch us.  These can be participating in activities that distract us or indulging in behaviors that numb us. Nevertheless, the overwhelming complexity of our life remains. Too often, we look within ourselves to solve these issues thinking that we have no one else who could help. But what if there was another way to find sanity in a world of complexity?

The Hebrew prophet Elijah became overwhelmed with life and had decided to give up.  He was directed to do a few simple things:  eat well, rest, exercise, get away, get quiet and just sit down in nature and listen. Then he heard the “STILL SMALL VOICE’ of His God and the way forward became clear. Maybe we could learn something from history to aid us in our here and now.