Lessons from my rose bushes

I have a confession to make.  I am not the greatest gardner in the world.  As a matter of fact, I tend to let my rose bushes get really messy before deciding to do anything with them at all, including feeding them!  I will let them grow over the sidewalk WAAY too far before doing anything to trim them back, and the bottoms of them are very woody.

This week, I gathered my supplies and decided it was time to do something about our "growing" problem.  The back door is our favorite way to enter the house, and quite frankly, those bushes have some wicked thorns, sometimes forcing us off the sidewalk into the grass.  The other thing I have noticed is that after I prune them they tend to look fabulous, grow better, and become overall healthier.

As I was pruning, though, I found God bringing several things to my mind that correlate to the church.  Richard and I often find ourselves in situations where God is about to do something great in the church we are serving.  Our move to New York seems to be just such an opportunity.  We are in a rebuilding phase, and that is fabulous.  However, it also comes with birthing pains.  Four distinct things came to mind as I was pruning that made me think of God growing a church through such an experience.

1.  When I am pruning these bushes, some branches have to come all the way off.  Even back to the ground sometimes.  Let's face it.  Even when they are green, sometimes they are just dead branches, and if I leave them on the bush, they are wasting my resources.  They continue to draw water, sun and feed that is meant for the healthier part of the bush.  Could I leave them in place?  Maybe, but I can also choose to remove them entirely, therefore using the resources toward the healthier parts of the plant instead of the dead ones, maybe even to the point of removing the healthy branch's opportunities to grow.

I think God does that sometimes with people in the church.  Don't get me wrong, I am not meaning to say that God "takes people out," so to speak.  He may call them on to another church that will breathe new life into their faith, and make them a productive part of that place to His glory.  But, He will remove them in His good time.  Consider this:  if you aren't a part of the solution, then you are a part of the problem.  Are you working in your own church in the way that you should, adding to the overall good health of your church?  If not, why not?  Are you using up resources intended for growth for others in your sort of "on the shelf" blessed assurance?  There is not retirement plan here.  Get to work!

2.  Some branches have the tiniest bit of growth.  When I say, "the tiniest bit", I am speaking of even just a red place in the crook of a branch that might eventually be a stem for a new rose.  In some places, it is almost too little to see, but I look hard for those spots, because the ultimate goal is to breed new blooms, maybe even in the most unexpected place.  God does this in the church as well.  Although that branch may look dead, if that tiny bit of growth will produce something beautiful, I am willing to put the resources of the bush there for a time, hoping that will promote that healthy growth.  In our own lives, sometimes this means being very patient with one another, waiting for God to bring the growth.  But rest assured, there is something beautiful coming there.  If not, the branch will be pruned in His good time.

3.  Thorns are painful.  At this very moment, as I sit and type this, there is a thorn in my left hand.  Literally.  Even though I use gloves when I prune.  My bush uses them as protection, or so I am told.  Since I consider myself the "friend" of my bush, the one that cares for it (even only occasionally), sometimes I think its defenses are a bit too high!  Some of those branches are wickedly protected.  People act the same way on occasion.  My natural instinct is to protect myself heavily, and I am betting you have that same inclination.  Sometimes, in that self centered desire, I throw out defenses that make people uncomfortable.  I don't intend to inflict damage, but the old adage holds true that hurting people hurt people.  Even unintentionally.  In time, at least in life (though not in rose bushes!), those defenses will come down.  I pray that you are mature enough to understand, and that I will be mature enough to understand in the case of others that those hurts were unintentional, and grow past them.  If not, one of us might have to be pruned back, or cut off altogether, and that is a difficult situation for everyone.

4.  Pruning can be awful, but the results are fantastic.  After finishing my job on the bushes, they look pretty thin, but already, in just 2 days, I can see new growth abounding on them.  I have already had one beautiful blooming of roses, and it looks as though, through the pruning and feeding, that I will have another in this season.  In the church, we tend to look back at the "glory days", when we had 750 in attendance and all these things going on, and lament those, instead of looking for God to produce another "blooming".  There are cycles in life.  Sometimes we are on the upswing in a cycle, but if we don't cycle down, then back up again, we will stunt our own growth.  In church lingo, we say these churches are in decline.  What we really mean is that the church is on life support, and short of a few people doing a lot of work, the growth will never be evident again, and the church will cease to exist, or have to reinvent itself through a lot of hard work.  It's worth it, though, to do the work, let God do the pruning, then enjoy the new "blooming".

The Bible says that if we do the work, God will bring the increase.  Sometimes the tasks, like being a part of a church going through growing pains can seem enormous.  You get discouraged.  You feel like the burden of everything rests squarely on you.  But we all know that isn't true.  Our part is important, but it may be the smallest part of the body.  However, if EVERYONE involved does their small part, the body is built up, little by little.  Consider your part in the body, then get to work!