This past February I came across this wonderful set of garden pruners and shears at Costco. We could most certainly use those! The blackberry briars, sticker bushes, and Big Leaf Maple shoots are aggressively trying to overrun the forest. These will be perfect for the job.
So, the wonderful set of garden pruners and shears came home with me.
And I set them in the pantry … where I could admire them. Afterall, it’s still winter … can’t quite use them yet. Ha!
February became a cold, wet March. Which then became a cold, wet April … which then became a cold, wet May … and then a cold, wet June.
The first of July rolled around … and there sat the wonderful set of garden pruners and shears … still in their packaging … still in the pantry … where I still continued to admire them every time I went to get cereal for breakfast or chips for lunch.
The pantry is NOT the place for garden pruners and shears. The place for garden pruners and shears is at work out in the forest … tackling the blackberry briars and sticker bushes and Big Leaf Maple shoots gone wild.
How many Christians are just like this beautiful set of garden pruners and shears? They are perfect. And just as my garden pruners and shears have been sitting in the pantry being admired, how many Christians just sit around, in their spiritual lives, admiring how “perfectly spiritual” they are?
How many Christians show up to church Sunday after Sunday to admire how “spiritual” each other are? No dirt. No mud. No nicks or chips or dullness of the blade.
Then what happens when one Sunday someone comes in with a set of garden shears which has been hard at work in the forest of life, tackling the aggressive briars of evil which are trying to choke out godliness and flourishing. This person’s set of garden shears are dirtied and muddied from the hard work. They are nicked and chipped and worn dull by the effort of the week.
Hubby and I know what it feels like to come into a setting of “perfectly spiritual” Christians who are sitting around admiring each other’s “perfect” garden shears. We come in with garden shears which are dirtied and muddied, and we are exhausted and weary from the hard work out in the forest of life.
Church is to be a place to sharpen those weary garden shears. Church is to be a place to strengthen the exhausted … to renew the weary to face yet another week of hard battle on the frontlines.
What do your garden shears look like?
Are they “perfect” … sitting on the shelf … being admired?
Or are your garden shears muddied and nicked by hard work in the forest of life, tackling evil and advancing the Kingdom of God?
