rapture anyone?...

So, apparently the world was supposed to end last Saturday...I spent the day doing most improbable and illogical thing possible in light of that fact...I planted a garden. I don't know anything much about end time predictions really except they really get a lot of attention. Unfortunately the attention always misdirects a lot of people and re-blackens the eye of Christians in general. So, I chose to do the most faith and life affirming thing on the day the world was set to end in violent catastrophe. There is a reoccurring thought that seems to play in my head as I work the soil...plant seeds and plants with the vision and hope for a future harvest. There is no difference in the way we are supposed to live as followers of Jesus. Jesus tells us over and over to plant seeds and to plant them with the vision and hope of a harvest. These seeds are sharing the gospel and our personal stories with others and how Christ has changed us and our lives. We sow liberally without regard to the likelihood of whether the seeds will sprout, take root and bear fruit. The only way to ensure success is to tend that garden we have planted and we do that by being present and attentive to the needs of others that we sow into. It is an investment we make and we should treat is as such and take ownership of it. I always see the direct connection with what I am doing in my backyard garden with what I am doing in the world as a whole. It is merely a microcosm of the larger way we are called to live by Jesus. As I strive to create my so-called Eden...it should mirror the same work on a larger scale to bring that vision to the world in which we live. To do anything less is an issue of faith and lack of understanding of how the kingdom of God gets advanced by us. We are farmers and we are planters and as Wendell Berry says,

 “The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope."

It the most hopeful of things to plant the tiniest of seeds...a lettuce or carrot seed or even a mustard seed as Jesus referenced and wait and watch the potential held within that tiny seed burst forth into the thing that God designed it to be. There is a powerful healing that takes place inside of us when we see this transformation before our very eyes. It's no different than the seed of the gospel that we plant within someone when we share our personal stories of faith and redemption and restoration. How could you be so arrogant and selfish and self absorbed that you wouldn't want to do that for someone? I don't know. However, I do know this...all of the end times talk is pale and insignificant when compared to the incredibly simple way that Jesus has shown us how to grow this amazing garden...I don't know about you...but I have a lot of work to do right now...it's planting season... but seriously, when is it not?