Another Insight from Composting: Utility

Yesterday I had the pleasurable experience of moving a compost pile we started last fall. It was dark, loose, moist, and full of earthworms, probably the best looking batch we have produced. It gave me a real sense of accomplishment, thinking that we had successfully carried the task of composting to its completion.

But then I realized that the compost is not an end in itself. As good as it is, it is a means to a greater end: producing a crop. I am hopeful that will occur, but we’re not there yet. We still have to put that compost to work before we are actually done with the composting process.

There seems to be a strong parallel between that and our lives in Christ.  We, through God’s grace, put real effort into our sanctification, and we see results. That is good, and is likely pleasing to God, but not enough. God saves and sanctifies in order for us to deliver His goodness into the world. We have to put our sanctification to work in order to truly complete the process. See Ephesians 2:10; Titus 2:14; Titus 3:8; Titus 3:14; 1 John 3:17-19; Luke 3:8-11, James 2:14-26.    

What We Can Learn from Earthworms

Earthworms do tremendous good. They loosen compacted ground by borrowing through it, opening it to water, air, and plant roots. They enrich soil by mixing it with their own digestive enzymes and other organic material to form castings, a natural fertilizer that makes nutrients available to plants as they need them. They breakdown waste products and remove toxins. Their beneficial impact has been empirically verified.

That happens as a result of their daily, individually small, actions. None independently transform a poor field into a good one, but they have tremendous cumulative effect.  And those actions are not sacrificial. To the contrary, they actually help the earthworms live and thrive.

We can have a similar impact by living the way Jesus modeled. We can loosen our hardened environment by small but consistent acts of kindness to others, particularly those who have no right to expect them. We can enrich our surroundings by diligently, humbly, and generously performing the tasks involved in the vocation God called us to do. We can clean our social environment by responding to irritants and slights with love and grace, turning them from negatives to positive examples. Those actions are not entirely sacrificial; they will bless us along with the others we share our environment with.

Learning from the Mustard Seed

Part 4: Being Open to Blessing on Multiple Levels

“The kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the biggest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air can come and shelter in its branches.” Matthew 13:31-32 (New Jerusalem Bible)

This parable illustrates another aspect of Godly fruitfulness: utility on multiple levels. Here a plant cultivated for spices grows to serve an additional purpose, to provide shelter. It’s a divine “two for.”

We see this aspect of God’s handiwork throughout scripture.

Consider the Mosaic law.  It not only served the immediate purposes of providing social order, inculcating healthy ethical norms, and furthering public health among a particular nation, it also served the spiritual purposes of illustrating all humans’ inability to deliver ourselves from sin in our own strength.

Consider Joseph (Jacob’s son) and Joseph (Jesus’ foster father). The works God called them to not only met immediate human needs during their times, the ways God called them and their responses have provided instruction and inspiration that have blessed individuals, families, and societies over the centuries.

Consider Jesus’ miracles. They not only alleviated immediate suffering, they also drew people to Him, revealed His divinity, and built faith then, since then, and today.

The pattern is clear: God uses individual things to provide blessings on multiple levels, often across broad swaths of time.

So what do we do with that, how do we respond? At least two things come to mind.

First, we have to be open to the fact that God’s plans are far more profound than ours and be willing to surrender ours in favor of His. That opens the way to the kind of multifaceted blessings we’ve been considering here. Maybe that’s why Jesus stressed that we truly find life by abandoning our own lives to Him.

Second, we should be encouraged, in spite of less than expected immediate results. Most of the blessings from the examples given above did not come right away, they accrued (and continued to accrue) over time, sometimes centuries and millennia later. That explains why scripture repeatedly tells us to persevere in the face of disappointments. See Matthew 10:14, Romans 5:3-5, 2 Corinthians 12:10, Hebrews 12:11-13,  James 1:2-3,  1 Peter 4:19.  See also Proverbs 24:10, Sirach 2:14. That gives God a fuller set of actions to turn to the ultimate—and exponential—good. For more on this, check out Unexpected Fruit from Long Dormant Seeds.