What We Can Learn About The Christian Life from Compost

Part 1:

 The End Product is Greater Than the Sum of it's Parts

    Compost comes from a collection of materials that, by themselves, have limited value to our gardens. Shredded leaves make good, water preserving, mulch, but they don’t add much nitrogen. Fresh grass clippings contain a lot of nitrogen, but they have their own limits.  Yet combined in the right conditions and given time, those things become much more beneficial than each is on their own. Something happens that makes the combination much more beneficial than the sum of its parts, and the end result produces tremendous good.

We see that same dynamic in Christian community. By ourselves, individual Christians have differing gifts that do indeed have definite value, but none of us are individually sufficient to deliver the very great good Jesus intends for all humanity.  Jesus combines them and something results that is far better than the sum of those parts. 1 Corinthians 12: 4-6, 14, 18-24 and Romans 12:4-5.  The end result is a community that becomes salt and light for the whole world, Matthew 5:13-16, and that has and continues to provide myriad benefits to myriad folks in myriad ways.  See Matthew 13:31-32 .

So how does God get that done, and what is our part in the process? Check back for future posts.