We used to have an ornamental tree at the front of our yard, surrounded by a flowerbed “moat” of sorts. We always had a difficult time getting things to grow around the tree because the soil was not particularly good. Parts of the “moat” were very shady at different times of the day and I never really gave it the attention that was needed.
After a couple of years of being mildly annoyed with the spectacle, I finally decided to do something about it. We purchased some good soil, leveled the bed out and planted bulbs for the spring-time, then added good ground-cover and flowers for the summertime and fall. I started to pay attention to it – watering it nightly and weeding it for a few moments every day after work. The “moat” around the tree started to look nice and I was proud of the results. Now, instead of being embarrassed, I felt a sense of accomplishment and I was encouraged to renovate the flower beds in front of our house and plant a garden out back.
It is amazing how seeing fruit in the “moat” began to effect how I viewed our yard and the potential for change that I now saw. Our yard was slowly and subtly transformed- it wasn’t the jewel of the neighborhood, but it was pleasant now instead of being an eye-sore.
Unfortunately, the transformation only lasted about a year. The next year, with another baby on the way, a new job, longer hours at work and less time in the yard, the inattention began to show. Weeds cropped up and began to choke out the flowers. The flower bed out front began to die without proper fertilizing and care. The garden out back only produced a mild crop. By the second year, the results of the neglect were more obvious and by the third year, it looked bleak.
One day, when my wife was out of town, I began to weed the flower beds. As I was pulling weeds, I marveled at how bad things looked and how subtle the changes had seemed at the time. As I was pulling the weeds, I began to realize that my own life was very similar to the gardens I was now working on - again.
You see, sometimes we can tend to ignore an area of our lives that needs attention but if it doesn’t seem major to us we do nothing about it until we begin to really hate our sin. This is a good kind of hatred – a hatred that causes us to respond to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and as we respond, we start to see just how ugly our sin is. To begin to change, God graciously has given us seeds (His Word) as well as many tools (means of grace) that we will need to plant and cultivate our garden. If we plant His Word in our lives and take advantage of the means of grace He has given us, we will begin to experience the mystery of change...
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