Landscaping

Master Gardener or The Master’s Gardener?

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I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5 ESV

When I opened my first landscaping business in 1987, I came in with more than a dozen years of experience, a professional license and plenty of specialized training. My plan was to use my expertise to guide and educate customers in the “right way” to maintain their ornamental gardens and trees. Boy did that not work out! What I spent the next thirty years learning was that my job was to serve the desires of my customers. Once I figured that out after years of butting heads, running the business became a delight and people usually loved the results.

Sadly, when some of us come to know Christ, we begin with almost the same mindset. Maybe we have been to Catechism class or spent time in Sunday School and we feel pretty sure that we know how to be good Christians. But that also; most definitely won’t work out! I remember one day a customer noticed a bumper sticker on my truck that said, “We Have a Friend in Jesus” and he asked, “Is that your partner?” I shook my head and laughed answering, “Oh no! He’s the boss!”

Yes, Jesus is the boss, and we are the branches. Doing things our way is no longer an option. But when we get in synch with His garden design, then everything our life will begin to yield beautiful fruit!

A Landscape of Hope!

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But I say, love your enemies!Pray for those who persecute you! Matthew 5:44 NLT  

This morning Deandra who writes Imago Dei on WordPress got me thinking about the issue of complaining. (I have done more than my fair share) and how it affects our lives and my initial comment on her blog led me to an entire post. So thank you Deandra and here is my story of hope for complainers like me. The link to her post is here…

https://deandrahurst.com/2020/07/09/a-thankless-job-part-2/

Back when I worked as an apprentice landscaper I had a boss named Al who specialized in making me crazy. When I struggled making a straight line on the edge of a flower bed   he’d say, “That looks like a dog’s breakfast!” Or he’d take a look at the bush I had just trimmed, snatch the tool from my hand and re-trim it then give the tool back and ask; “What are you Polish?”

One night when I was bringing my complaint session about Al home to my wife, God began to convict my heart that I needed to be praying instead of griping. Even though I wasn’t a bit excited about the idea I knew it was the right thing to do. So I began with short prayers like, “Bless Al and his family.”  Now it would be great to say that immediately things got better; but the reality was that at first I just didn’t get so mad about his remarks. Also my own attitude started changing and I began to try harder to improve my work.

The best day happened some months later when just Al and I were working together on a job out in the country. At noon Al glanced at his watch and said “Go ahead and take lunch. I’m just going to keep working.” So I sat down on a big rock and opened my lunch pail and saw an entire loaf of my wife’s home made zucchini bread. “Hey Al, don’t you have anything to eat?” I asked. “Don’t worry I‘ll get something later.”  “Hey, at least take five minutes and try some of my wife’s home made zucchini bread.” I insisted. It didn’t take much to convince him to sit down and try a sample. “Wow! That’s amazing!” he mumbled between bites as I shared my extra bottle of water with him to wash it down. My life wasn’t perfect after that lunch, but breaking bread with Al gave me hope. I had hope because I saw that God cares about changing tough circumstances and difficult people. I knew it- because he changed me. Now that’s a landscape of hope!