Lessons Learned #1: Move the Rocks

I'm not much of a gardener. In fact, I pretty much kill whatever plants are in my direct vicinity--I'm pretty sure I can do it by just looking at them. No one asks me to water their garden when they go out of town. This is just an understanding I have with my friends and family: You want your plants to be alive when you get back? Don't ask Stacey to water them.

However, there are a few things about gardening that seem pretty "common sense" to me, the most obvious being this: Before you plant a seed you have to get the soil ready for it. You have to loosen the soil and remove any rocks and sticks that might suffocate the new growth. This is absolutely vital in the process of planting seeds.

We use a lot of similar language when we are talking about ministry as followers of Christ. How many times have you shared the love of Christ with someone, and then referred to it later by saying, "Well, at least a seed has been planted."? We are all about "planting seeds". But how much time do we actually spend getting the soil ready? As William Young puts it in his fantastic book, The Shack, "You have to take the time to prepare the soil if you want it to embrace the seed."

Here in Boston, we say a lot that we are a "rock-moving" ministry. Before we can begin to plant the seeds of God's Word in people's lives, there are some huge boulders that need to be removed that are suffocating the Truth. These can come in many forms: family tradition, past hurt, cultural boundaries, relational boundaries--the list is endless. We have come to realize that we can't just ignore these things and fling seeds everywhere! These are huge rocks in people's lives that are hindering them from seeing the Truth, and if we truly and sincerely love people and want to see them freed from those things, then we have to be committed to taking the necessary time to remove rocks and till the soil of their hearts. And when the Holy Spirit does an amazing work in someone's life by removing the hindrances, we have seen some incredible surrender and strong faith.

And in Boston, the boulders have been around for centuries--literally. From Plymouth Rock in 1620 until now, layers and layers of bad soil have been compacted on top of the good soil. Layers of intolerance, religious universalism, and indifference have been suffocating the Truth.

So we labor to remove the rocks and break up the layers so that the soil is ready for planting. The lesson we've had to learn (and are still learning every day) is a lesson in perspective. No matter how much time I spend on the work of rock-moving, be it months or years, I have to understand that I might not get to see that seed ever planted or the fruit ever produced in my lifetime. But I'm OK with that, because I know that the small part I play in the grand story of God in someone's life is a vital part, and one in which God has called me to be faithful.

And it's a much better job for me than trying to keep a ficus alive.