Growing in the Garden

This past week I have been doing quite a bit of yardwork. Since I couldn't find a job for the summer, my parents graciously employed me as their personal handyman for the next couple months. It isn't a bad gig at all, just a little humid sometimes. :-)

As I have been doing yardwork, there has been an inordinate amount of time to think over different things in my life.

• Why is it that I sin?
• What does it mean to "desperately pray?"
• In what way should the government of a church be formed and operated?
• Is there a limit to familial accountability?
• Do I have a worldly view of success or a spiritual view of success?
• What was the last joke that I told to God?
• If I don't completely rely on God in this next year, I'm going to muck up the Student Body President position in a royal way!

All of these questions and misgivings rattle through my head and rarely find a symbolistic exit into the real world, but last week a little plant gave me some clarity.

My mother wants me to plant things in lots of different and new areas throughout our yard, and that means digging lots of holes. I mean LOTS of them people. I'll just say that I've dug so many holes that my foot has a permanent indention of the top of a shovel in it. So here I am digging up dirt for some seagrass, and I stop and look at one of the plants that I am planting.

It has to be one of the ugliest little guys that I have ever laid eyes upon. I mean, it might have been a decent seagrass at one point, but it was looking a lot like Britney Spears when she was at her worst: BAD. The blades of grass were dry and lifeless, with no color and no vitality. It was crispy and curled on its edges, and it probably wasn't even worth saving! I saw this little plant and thought, "Why should I plant this? It probably is going to die soon anyways (if it isn't already dead!)" Despite my own misgivings, I was ordered to dig and plant, so dig and plant I did...

After I planted the little guy, I started thinking about it. I'm that little plant in God's eyes. I have all of the facilities to become a vibrant seagrass, but I still suck at doing things the right way majority of the time. The big difference between my reality and the application that I'm explaining is that God is the gardener, and He doesn't plant me in the ground because someone told him to. God plants me in his ground because He believes in me and loves me. While I might be dead or dying, the water that he brings can re-vitalize me in a way that my little seagrass mind can't even begin to comprehend. I mean, do you think the seagrass thought that putting himself in dirt and splashing some water on himself would bring him life? No, obviously he did not. Only God, the gardener knows that.

*SIGH* What a good application! I thought that to myself as I jovially dug some more holes. Soon afterwards, my mom came outside and saw the state of the little seagrass. "Jordan, this little guy is done for, so lets dig him up and throw him away, okay?"

Irony?

I had subconsciously connected my own spiritual growth with the growth of that little seagrass! I stubbornly refused to dig it up, much to the frustration of my very exasperated mom, but now it is growing. I'm hoping to see much more application from the garden throughout the summer.

Until next time sports fan, I humbly submit this video for your viewing pleasure... Tony Hawk posted this video on Twitter a couple days ago. Ha!

video!

Dr. Blogabopolis has entered the building...

Sometimes, when I read what other people are writing, I feel like a proud friend. In movies, the protagonist will be all chummy chummy with someone back from their "college years", only to hear about the success of that person later on in life. There is a sort of swelling of pride in the face of the protagonist. They are happy that their comrade could succeed in life. 

Thats how I feel when I read blogs. 

Blogs have become a very important place within the life of a 20 something year old college student. Blogs keep our friends and families informed about our lives as we live, keep our lives from becoming entrenched entirely in the stresses of life, and most importantly, they allow a place for external process with like minded people. It is that final purpose that makes a blog so invaluable in our time.

We live in a society that is focused upon empirical data and swift clean answers. We don't often get the opportunity to chew on something and think it over. We are required to assimilate and regurgitate. This obviously is a more than lackluster form of education, and it is because of this implied system that blogs are quickly becoming crucial in the life of a developing thinker. 

On a blog, a blogger is able to present their half formed ideas or their "broadly stroked" dreams. In the blogging world, whenever a post is submitted to the blogging community the author is saying, "please read what I am thinking and push back". In reality, it is a shame that discussion like this has been transferred to the security of digital interaction with ideas as opposed to face to face interaction, yet this interaction is a necessary thing for our growth. 

When I read my friend's blogs, I see that they are learning and shaping the ways that they are thinking. Look at this, or this one, or even this guy's blog. They all are putting their ideas out for everyone to see and they are benefiting from it. 

I would challenge all of you who might read this to get someone else to start blogging. The more people that are willing to offer their viewpoints up for discussion, the stronger our own topics will become. I promote that the ethereal blogging community that we have found ourselves in should gain some substance and definition. I'm asking for us to not just go to our own blogs to talk about what we think and feel and want and believe, but also to talk about it with others.

Once we do this, enrichment will follow.