Seeds and Suitcases

I lived in Botswana for four months in a sweet little apartment. On my back patio, I had a small plot of ground that would have been perfect for a garden. I thought about planting a garden, talked a lot about planting a garden, looked at seeds for a planting a garden, enlisted help for planting my garden. But always in the back of my head was the thought, "It's not worth planting seeds. I'll have to break up this hard ground, find out what kind of plants will grow best and when the right time is to plant here, and water them constantly. I don't even know how long I'm going to be here. I will do all that work and then by the time the plants grow, I will be in Zimbabwe (ha!). I won't get to eat any of the fruits or vegetables I planted."

So I didn't. I didn't plant a garden and I didn't have any fruit. Due to the temporary nature of my stay in Botswana, I felt the tension between putting down roots and numbering my days, never unpacking my last suitcase.

And maybe I was justified with the suitcase thing, because then I was transferred to Zambia.

Zambia is a lush, green, beautiful country. In our yard we have a big garden, as well as many fruit trees. My favorite is the avocado tree… unlimited supply of fresh, free, organic avocados = happiness. But there is one problem with that tree. It produces avocados in abundance, but the tree is so tall that it is impossible to pick the ones from the top. They hang there until they rot or fall off, and we don't get to enjoy them. Kayla has witnessed my frustration over this predicament many times and laughed as I have tried to climb the tree and beat them off with a stick. Not effective, in case you were wondering.

I don't know much about agriculture, but I will say that in these two countries where I have ministered, there are spiritual parallels to the land I have just described. They are very different places with very different needs. Looking back at my time and Botswana, I hope and pray that I was more effective in planting seeds spiritually than I was with my nonexistent garden. And looking forward upon the mere 13 months I have left in Zambia, I pray that I will be more effective in harvesting than I am in knocking avocados off my tree. Because the fields here are ready for harvest. Oh, they are so ready. 

Every day I am amazed by my precious Zambian friends and fellow believers who have such big dreams of advancing the kingdom. They are a great an encouragement to me, yet at the same time I feel so inadequate. How can I help them seek the Lord's direction? How can I encourage them to obedience? How can I help mobilize them?

It has taken some time for me to realize, but the Word of God addresses all these questions and more than makes up for my deficiencies of knowledge in planting, watering, and harvesting.

He says we should ask him to send out more workers into the harvest. (Matt 9:38) 

He says that if we sow abundantly, we will reap abundantly… sow sparingly and you will reap sparingly. (2 Corinthians 9:6)

And perhaps most relieving (or most humbling) is the truth that those of us who plant and those who water are nothing, but only God, who makes things grow. (1 Corinthians 3:7)

I don't have to have all the answers. Yes, I am called to be faithful in planting seeds. Yes, I will do everything I can to nurture those plants and see them produce fruit. But it is the Lord of the harvest who makes things grow, who carries to completion the good work he begins in each one's life.