A Sluggardly Garden

**Reader's Note:**

For my attentive readers, you might have felt a sense of familiarity with yesterday's devotional. I had been reading back through James, and those verses stood out to me, and I wrote up the devotional. I didn't notice until I was completely finished that it was strikingly similar to one I wrote a while back. After the self-flagellation for this oversight, I considered writing/posting another one instead. But I decided to follow the inspiration, and hoped that because those verses and application stood out to me for my own edification, that hopefully someone needed another reminder yesterday as well. Thank you.

Now. Onward and upward!

Read

Proverbs 24:30–34 I went by the field of the lazy man, And by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding; And there it was, all overgrown with thorns; Its surface was covered with nettles; Its stone wall was broken down. When I saw it, I considered it well; I looked on it and received instruction: A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest; So shall your poverty come like a prowler, And your need like an armed man.

What it is speaking to me:

I own a house on a half-acre lot with many trees, bushes, hedges, and flower beds. I am not a gardener; in fact, I despise it. I was forced into a LOT of yard work as a kid, and it put a very (un)healthy dislike for it in me. Not surprisingly, my yard needs better care. Things on the edges are overgrown, flower beds have weeds, and the overall look is unkempt.

Part of the problem is attentional. I live as many of us do, an indoor, screen-heavy life. Ministry jobs are relational and administrative. It doesn't usually involve a lot of time outdoors in a garden. The busyness of life partnered with that strong aversion to spending time in a garden bed means things have turned out...well, the way they have.

Now this proverb is written in an agrarian time to an agrarian people. An unkempt field or vineyard meant no income or food, leading to poverty and death. Poverty and death are not the end result (at least I hope so!) of my overgrown flower beds that have only ever contained flowers, not food or income-producing plants like grapes. His point is that the sluggard is robbing himself, personified by poverty and need. So how am I robbing myself?

• I am robbed of a lot that looks taken care of, which is a testimony to my neighbors and people that visit.

• I am robbed of the hospitality a well-kept yard creates for those who come over to enjoy our company in it.

• I am robbed of using the garden to grow food that we can actually eat and enjoy sharing with others.

• I am robbed of time spent enjoying God's creation that produces life, and the unique perspective that is only gleaned from time spent cultivating life in the form of plants.

That is quite a lot.

Maybe for you it's not gardening. But what is it? Whatever area you might not be stewarding well, consider this: you are robbing yourself, just as I am.

Consider what God could bring, what blessing might come, from better stewardship of that thing you hate. Let that motivate you in it.

Meanwhile you may find me outside in my yard...maybe even one day you will see me out there with a smile...

What is it saying to you?

What do you have to steward that you don't like? Even hate?

What larger truth could motivate you to be disciplined in that stewardship?

What are we going to do about it?

Pick one thing or area of your stewardship you studiously avoid and apply yourself to it today.