Short Comings

I want to be a good gardener. I read everything I can find about the subject. I’ve studied my plants so well that I can identify them be their leaves, long before they are mature enough to produce anything. I follow advice I get from experts in the field, from books to the internet, I strive to be the best I can be. There are times when my garden is so beautiful and full of magnificent blooms, that I pat myself on the back and give myself accolades for what an accomplished gardener I’ve become. It was I, after all, who transformed this barren wasteland of a yard from a hot smoldering field of drying grass and rock; into a colorful oasis of ponds, flowers, fountains and feeders for man, beast, bird, and butterfly to enjoy. It feels really good to step back and enjoy the works of my hands. Then, like an inexperienced novice, I do something stupid.

Once, frustrated with a family of wasps that overtook my patio and refused to leave, I grabbed a can of wasp spray and sprayed at one in mid-flight. The thick foamy spray landed on everything; my beautiful jackmanii clematis, my lovely orange profusion zinnias, and worst of all, my small patio fish pond. I had to scramble frantically to save my fish! Another time, annoyed with a weed the kept coming back, I sprayed a little squirt of weed killer, that drifted onto a beloved perennial and almost killed it.

I find myself sometimes impressed with how much I’ve grown spiritually through the years. Things I used to do and ways I used to act are very far removed from me now. I am glad I’m not the person I used to be. And just when I think I am no longer capable of certain thoughts and actions; temptation pops up to challenge me. I recognize that, given the right mix of internal and external circumstances, my initial knee-jerk reactions can occasionally surprise me. My first thoughts are not always godly thoughts. These situations remind me that I am constantly in a growth process in my spiritual life. I am reminded that as I read, as I study, as I grow; I am still wrapped in flesh, so I must also make a conscious, constant, and concerted effort to apply the biblical principles and attitudes that I’ve learned. Sometimes Believers get so caught up in what we “know”; we don’t always consider what we “show”

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.. Philippians 3:12-14 (New King James Version)