Worth Creating

I wrote my post for My Garden Walk a little late today.  It’s good to rest on your day of rest.   Even if you don’t usually read these Daily Devotion blog posts that I write each week, I’d like to encourage you to take the time to read the one I wrote today before continuing with my thought process here. (Click here to read it.)

I just received an email from my professor about my last class.  The class went well this time and I did well in that environment.  My educational path continues.

In the email, the professor said kind words about me and my work in the class.  She said, “Your paper was well written and clearly demonstrated that you seriously grappled with the class materials. You contextualized the information for your ministry setting with clarity and purpose. Keep going!”  I don’t share this with you to enjoy a pat on the back.  I share it with you because it matches the perspective I feel led to share with you today.

Growth is easy.  It doesn’t take any work at all to allow the grass to grow, weeds to flourish, and the trees to take root to grow tall.  My son is now as tall as me and I had no control over the biological process that took him from infancy to adulthood.  God takes care of the really hard part of helping creation to grow.

Environment creating, though, is hard.  When my son was a baby, he needed to be fed, diaper changed, and protected from outside elements and any predator that may want to bring him harm.  As time went on, he learned how to do many things on his own and became mature enough to navigate the world without much care or protection from us.  He is mature enough to grow in the “natural environment” of the world.  In between, though, we needed to create a safe environment for his growth.  That took a lot of work.

Environment creating is like building a greenhouse in the backyard so the plants can continue to grow, mature, and bear fruit even when the world outside is freezing and blanketed in snow.  Environment creating purposefully keeps growth-inhibitors out and ensures that the elements necessary for growth are in.  Environment creating comes in many shapes, sizes, and places:  parenting children, making a house a home, working with integrity, being fair, loving safely and unconditionally, feeding, clothing, housing, and much more.

Environment creating is hard work.  It is part of you as you go through your day.  It’s a part of the place you sleep or call home.  It affects your marriage, your family, and every relationship in your life.  It contributes to the environment of your church and affects others’ picture of God as they look at you. 

Environments go with us everywhere we go and they affect everyone we meet.  A bad environment destroys the Garden but a good environment helps it to grow.  Good environments take lots of work to create, but they’re worth creating.  That’s why we “Keep going!”  We’re creating environments for growth.