The Body Builder

By Captain Terry Camsey – 

Our rear garden is a shambles!

It was a mess when we moved in, since the house had been empty for many months, and our many efforts at trimming, pruning, mowing, and weeding have been fruitless. For us, that is, the garden itself is thriving, but not quite the way we envisaged it. England is described as a green and pleasant land–in the original sense of the word. Maybe it is not “green” enough from an environmentalist’s interpretation.

I guess it has to do with the climate and the soil as much as anything. I mean, you only have to look at grass and it grows…along with the weeds! In fact, for some–as yet–unknown reason, even our fingernails seem to grow more quickly here. I only wish I could get the hair on my head to respond in kind.

I’m beginning to understand why some churches are resistant to growth. It’s just too much work to cope with a bumper harvest.

The front garden next door is wonderful…neat, tidy, colorful…no weeds. A serendipity, in fact, for every passer-by. All the more remarkable because the owner of the house, and its gardener, is a blind lady! Well, she may be blind in her eyes, but she can certainly “see through her fingers.” It is immaculate. She has the skill, the inclination and time to ensure it’s just the way she wants it. “Green fingers” as they would say here, as against “green thumbs” in the States.

If I’m completely honest about it, the garden is about what I deserve for the amount of time I put into it. It’s the same in all of life, isn’t it? We get from it what we put into it. The disappointments come when we plant one thing and expect to reap another.

I was reading a story recently where a business consultant was moving into his new home. He asked a friend to help him landscape it professionally. He knew exactly what he wanted…a garden requiring little or no maintenance…full of equipment to make such maintenance as was unavoidable more palatable…automatic sprinklers, etc.

His prime goal was to reduce to a minimum the amount of time he had to spend on the garden. The horticultural friend finally had enough, and said to the owner, “There’s one thing you need to know…There’s no garden if there’s no gardener!”

Often a “wilderness” experience is caused by us ourselves because we are not prepared to put into an activity that which is required for us to see the results we would prefer. That has applications in terms of kingdom-growth, too. Thankfully, as the old chorus put it:

“Our Lord knows a way through the wilderness,
All we have to do is to follow!”

I once was lost, but now am found…
Was blind but now I see!
Do you?