Category Archives: Learning from our past

Carrot Tops

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My son Hans and his Katy are energetic gardeners. Wanting to teach Nicholas, Evelyn and Thomas the principles of sowing and reaping, they devoted part of their pretty yard to growing vegetables and berries. This week we’ve all benefited from Katy’s delicious cooking, enjoying leeks, onions, strawberries, currants, and other foods from the yard.

Then today Katy planned to harvest the first of an abundant carrot crop, their green tops standing tall and lush. With trowel at-the-ready, she showed the children the plump, orange carrot tops peeking out of the black soil. But when she pulled out the first few, we got a terrible surprise. Each one was nearly as wide as it was long, some virtually spheres, and most were split down the middle with grey gunk in the cracks.

And then we saw the reason: SLUGS.

Thousands of them had been banqueting on Nyman carrots for weeks. As we sliced into the carrot-crevices, slimy blobs wriggled and writhed, objecting to being disturbed. Many of the carrots included hollows in which hundreds of eggs had been laid. The word “gross” wasn’t disgusting enough.

Katy ran for the gardening book while Hans made the decision to uproot all 7 rows of healthy-looking carrot plants. As he dug and tugged, he tossed the uprooted carrots into two piles: contaminated and partially-contaminated.

The children carefully carried the partially-contaminated to a table, where I used a sharp knife to trim away whatever “clean” bits could be used. Then they rubbed off the soil and plopped them into a tub of clean water to go to the kitchen.

What could have been a bountiful carrot crop turned out to be a big bust for a family who had weeded, watered, and anticipated a harvest from April through August. But God saved the day with a spiritual lesson.

As Hans pulled out one foul carrot after another, lamenting the loss, he suddenly said, “This is probably a parallel to what our ‘righteous’ works look like to God. At the end of days, as the Lord combs through our good deeds, he’ll be tossing them into two piles: ‘Contaminated and partially-contaminated.’ Not one will be flawlessly righteous.”

We can easily fool ourselves into thinking our good deeds are boosting our credit with him. But as learned theologians remind us, we’re all sinners, and we’ll always be sinners, to the very end. It’s healthy to remind ourselves of that so we won’t be tempted to classify our behavior as “pretty good.”

The happy truth is we’re saved by God’s grace through faith in him, not by anything we do to earn it. (Ephesians 2:8-9) As Bishop Ryle says, even in our best works, there’s something to be pardoned.

Tonight we ate the carrot pieces shaved from contaminated carrots, but Katy’s plans for carrot soup, carrot cake, carrot bread, and other goodies preserved in her freezer will not materialize.

But in 2013, WATCH OUT slugs!

“We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags,” (…or contaminated carrots). (Isaiah 64:6)

Balancing Act

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My grandson Micah was recently gifted with something I’d never seen before: a balancing bike. It resembles a small two-wheeler but has no pedals and relies on push-power to move.

Although Micah is only two, he took to it immediately and has learned to sail down the length of his driveway without taking a tumble. He shoves off, then lifts his feet, and whoosh, down he goes, managing the tricky art of balancing. At some point he’ll want a traditional bike with pedal-power, but for now he and his wheels are inseparable.

Parents find themselves coaching their young children to learn several other balance-related maneuvers too, the first of which is learning to sit up at about 6 months. After that it’s walking, pumping a swing, rollerblading, ice skating, and others, all needing balancing expertise.

Certain kids take to balancing naturally (like Micah) while others need prolonged assistance and encouragement. After children master the physical art of balancing (say, their pre-teen years), they’re ready for the much harder task of balancing their lives. For some, even that comes easily, but the rest of us struggle, wobbling or even crashing completely once in a while.

And that’s where God comes in.

Children don’t need him to hold the seat of a two-wheeler or run alongside, because he’s given that assignment to parents. His balance-assistance is for grown-ups, since we’re the ones so often doing it poorly by ourselves.

Years ago The Tonight Show’s host, Johnny Carson, invited a plate-spinning comedian to perform one of those chaotic demonstrations we all love, but this performer was absolutely the best. He kept a dozen plates spinning atop wiggly sticks while balancing three more on his forehead, nose, and chin.

Surely he’d had a triple-espresso before coming on stage. His body was a blur as he leapt back and forth along the sticks, rescuing some just seconds before they threatened to crash to the floor. He was a balancing aficionado.

Of course this isn’t what God means when he asks us to bring balance to our lives. But plate-spinning mania is often the way we feel day-to-day while trying to meet our varied commitments. So what do we do?

We follow Micah’s example, tackling one balancing act at a time. If he’d started with a balancing bike, a pedal bike, and a mountain bike all at once, he’d have been in for some nasty road rash. The same goes for spinning plates. Few is preferable to frenetic, and with the first broken plate, back-pedaling is our only solution.

All of us have limits on what we can accomplish, limited time, energy, money, motivation, skills. But if we let God hand us exactly what he wants us to balance, he’ll never let us tip out of balance. After that, if we add any “plates” against his advice, it won’t be long before we’ll need a broom, a dust pan, and a revised balancing-plan from the Lord.

“Letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.” (Romans 8:6)

Dreaming of Chaos

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We all know God sometimes speaks to people in their dreams, or at least he used to. Just remembering Mary and Joseph brings a handful of examples to mind, since their God-given dreams directed their every move. Does the Lord still do that today?

Last night I had a heart-thumper. In the dream I was babysitting for all my grandchildren, having trouble keeping them straight. Although I knew who was who, I couldn’t remember which mother-instructions went with which child. I had a heavy toddler on my hip and a baby on my shoulder and was trying to put together a bottle with one elbow and my chin. I couldn’t remember, though, if I was supposed to use formula powder or regular milk.

When I looked at the two children I was holding, they were both asleep. Had they already been fed? Or did they fall asleep hungry? And who went into which bed? And which child was the bottle for? And was it really nap time, or should I wake them up? On and on my confusion swirled as the other 4 grands ran circles around me, begging for popsicles and M&Ms.

All of us have experienced real-life confusion that could rival that dream. A number of small glitches, surprises, or coincidences happening in quick succession can combine to create a major crisis. And the worst part is realizing it’s not a dream and that we do have to cope with what seems un-cope-able at that moment.

I find it interesting that the few places in Scripture where the word “confusion” appears, it’s either in reference to an attack from the enemy (“throwing people into confusion”), or an example of God forcing confusion on a group as punishment, sometimes labeled “a curse.” In any and all cases confusion is synonymous with misery.

I often joke about being confused, but according to God it’s no laughing matter. Instead I should work at eliminating it from my life. Although I don’t invite confusion, it seems to dog me anyway. Is it possible that ongoing inefficiency and poor planning might be the real culprits? Is my hiding behind the “I’m-just-confused” line a cover-up for pure weakness?

Actually Scripture teaches that it’s worse than that. In 2 Corinthians 12 we see “disorder” listed as one of 8 sins! “…quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder.” (V. 20) Who knew?

If God was using my dream to speak to me, his message was one of two things: (1) babysit grandchildren one at a time, or (2) get rid of the confusion in your life.

In either case, I was glad that this time I could eliminate the chaos simply by waking up.

“Chaos calls to chaos, to the tune of whitewater rapids… Then God promises to love me all day, sing songs all through the night! My life is God’s prayer.” (Psalm 42:7-8, MSG)