Holy Shit..

Shocking title? Well, that’s part of what this Sunday’s sermon was about. How often do we find ourselves dealing with crap in our lives? We can’t figure out why we have to deal with pointless hardships, difficulties that seem to have no use or purpose. How do we respond to the crap? Do we fight it off, or do we look for the good in it? Really?!! Can we find good in all the shit we go through? Maybe... The preacher pointed out the response of Jesus after HE had been questioned about unfair suffering. Gospel of Luke, Chapter 13:

⁶ Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. ⁷ So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’

⁸ “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. ⁹ If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

'Dig around and fertilize...’ These words could easily describe what many of us experience with our lives being dug up and dumped on. Could it be that we can find nutrients in this fertilizer? Maybe this is  the purpose, for us to produce better quality fruit. Yet so much of the fruit is dependent on us. Do we allow the fertilizer to do it’s work deep within us, or do we try to rid ourselves of the crap -rejecting the good it could do for us?

This thought was an eyeopener for me this weekend. Just a couple of days earlier i raised my complaint to God, why do i have to deal with all this shit??? Today i’m thinking of how i can tap the nutrients from it, rather than trying to rid myself of it. Yes, it’s a different perspective, an uncommon vantage point.

Let’s face it, life is full shit, all kinds of it. The typical response is anger, and rejection of the crap. But if we look at it from the gardener’s vantage point, it may just be what we need to grow and mature into whom God’s created us to be.