I guess fall is officially underway, as I watch our beautiful landscape turn brown and fall asleep for the winter. These changes make for much anticipation for what the winter will bring. I know many of you do not care for the swirling white stuff like I do. While I look forward to the change in season, I too will eventually grow tired of it and anticipate the new signs of lush green growth.
With the current changes in our weather, I had been avoiding a job I knew needed to be done. Getting my garden cleaned out. (Insert a long sigh here.) After weeks of daily trips to harvest the bountiful goodness and storing it up for the year ahead, I had not made the trip across the yard in a while. Perhaps I was sad to face the facts that one of my favorite spots was done for the season, but today was the day. With a warm sweatshirt and gloves pulled up high, I got to work. It struck me as I was pulling out the plants how something that was once so good and fruitful was now just a crispy, dead plant that needs to be taken out, to allow for new growth next year. The plants were no longer producing the once beautiful fruit.
The plants in my garden were not a waste. My garden allowed a spot for me to enjoy this summer, spending hours tending to its needs. Several weeks ago I was harvesting a lot of wonderful fruit; harvested fruit that I have since stored in clear jars on my basement shelf to use and enjoy for months to come.
As I was cleaning, I was surprised to see a head of cauliflower. “What is this among all the drying, dead vines and stalks?” I asked myself. Could it be my first head of cauliflower for the year? I had given up on my cauliflower weeks ago. But, there among all the dying stuff was life. There was fruit (or a vegetable in this case J) that had sprung up among all the stuff that was not producing anymore.
After pulling everything up and bringing it to our burn hole, my mind started thinking. “Could this be similar to how we feel about things at church?” I have many traditions that I grew up with in Chandler that are similar to here at ARC. I enjoy and hold them close to my heart. It reminds me of my journey to knowing Christ, my loved ones and their love for our Creator. It can be difficult to see changes, sometimes even a bit hurtful. It is hard to see programs and traditions that you have participated in, found joy in, maybe even help begin, come to an end. We settle in and get comfortable, hold those feelings close to our heart and it just feels good.
Over the years, some of our programs and ways we do different things at church have changed or quit being effective, in the ways originally intended. Some have just naturally flowed in a little different direction without much notice. A few things, that were maybe very important to some people, have come to an end because of low participation or other circumstances. No matter the situation, much like the end of my gardening season, change can be difficult. I will admit it can sometimes be very difficult! However, sometimes we need to “clean up” a bit to allow for new growth, both for us and others.
Programs and traditions could be compared to my garden. It has grown and been a good place to enjoy, but now the growth has slowed or even quit. The garden produced a lot of wonderful fruit and now the fruit has been harvested to help sustain us for the new season. The fruit that has come from many of our programs has been plentiful and wonderful. This fruit has been harvested and is now stored up in the lives of many, in order to carry us through the new season of good things to come. While it won’t always be easy, we can be assured we have the much needed knowledge and love for one another to journey together as the body and allow for new growth within one’s heart, outside our physical church walls and into the hearts of the lost.
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” Ecclesiastes 3:1
Appreciating God’s perfect timing in all things, Becky