Life Encounters

You can call me sad if you like, but there’s some exciting news. The new grass is growing at last!

Our lawn (or rather the muddy patch of earth with a few clumps of meadow grass on it) has always bugged me. A few weeks ago I decided to take some action and sow some more grass. At the risk of endangering my reputation for being cool here are some  lessons from my lawn…

Number One: Things take time to grow

Since I sowed the new grass I’ve been going out every day to check on it and have been completely underwhelmed at its lack of progress. Every day I was eager to see green shoots of life. Instead there was absolutely nothing.

I was plagued by doubts: “Maybe I did it wrong”, “Maybe the birds ate it”, “Maybe the kids ran over it and killed it”, “Maybe it didn’t have enough water”. “Maybe I wasted my time”.

And yet here we are a couple of weeks later and there’s some good green shoots that have shot up.

Life’s like that as well.

I know I can get discouraged sometimes when I don’t see instant growth or results. I’m tempted to think I’m doing wrong, or I need to figure out a new plan, or to give up and start again. Sometimes things just take time to grow. In fact nothing great was ever achieved overnight. Whether I’m trying to achieve something, share the good news of Jesus, or help people grow. More and more I realise I just need to patiently keep doing what God has asked me to and trust him to make things grow. Check out what Paul says about this

Remember, it’s only love that never fails – and above all love is patient.