Fertile Ground, part 1

*Fertile Ground is an ongoing devotional of sorts that springs from times spent with the Lord in the garden. Some of the most valuable lessons for me have been whispered to my heart when I am alone, on my knees, in the dirt.

The Plan
You want to start a garden. Maybe you have in mind a lush green lawn surrounded by beds of tumbling and cascading fountains of color, with each season bringing new variety. Or perhaps your idea is of soldier-straight rows of vibrant green plants each bearing mounds of perfect produce that would make even Burpee envious.
So, you throw out some seed and hope for the best? No! Whether simple or grand, you must start with a plan. Some gardeners begin in January, curled up next to a cozy fire with an avalanching pile of seed catalogues. They make lists, draw diagrams, check and recheck. When spring finally arrives, they are ready. They head out with new gloves, clean spades and hoes, and carefully using stake and string they plot their patch. With textbook precision they plant each seed, and precisely on cue, each seed sprouts perfectly spaced and identical. They wouldn’t dare do otherwise.
The rest of us start about two days before our frost free date. That’s because each year we have to look up when it is safe to plant and it always sneaks up on us. So we end up running to Wal-mart, picking a handful of seed packets that look interesting and haphazardly tossing them in rows we scratched with the blunt hoe that still has last year’s clods on it. We get a lot of “help”, so in the end, we’re not even really sure what is in each row. But at the end of last season we were sure we were going to do it right “next year” and we had a plan, even if it was just a fantasy.
There is another kind of gardener, though. This gardener spends time learning about different kinds of plants that they might want to grow. They order their seeds in advance and get their tools ready. They might even have a picture in mind of how they intend to plant this year, but they are open to the idea of changing that plan. They make allowances for the little people that help with and spend time in their garden as well as for the wildlife that might visit there. And they delight in surprises like a butterfly chrysalis found or the unexpected flower planted by a bird. When something doesn’t work, something else is tried. A great deal of care is given, but there is also a great deal of joy.
Have you sensed where I’m going with this yet?
Every life needs a plan, and I don’t mean careers and relationships either. Simple or grand, we all need a spiritual plan. Will it be regimented and strict? “A place for everything and everything in its place” but no tolerance for anything outside of our plan and no joy either? Or will it be a slap-dash mess? Hastily thrown together at the last minute because we forgot and we’ll do better next time?
There is another way. It requires a different kind of mindset. Make a plan, but be open to the Holy Spirit’s leading in other directions. Be willing to drop everything in order to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves with the little ones and allow time to share with those whose lives touch yours only briefly. Enjoy the surprises. Work through the mistakes. Be vigilant, but be flexible. And there will be joy!