In order to eat from the garden.....

I was driving to church tonight (from Sam's Club where I went to eat dinner.... I love a good hot dog... I am indeed my father's child!) and thinking about pouring out and in to other people and such. Really I don't even remember what got to to thinking about it. But I've thought a fair amount lately about the idea of having to be poured in to in order to pour out.

Tonight I got the analogy of a garden. In order to eat from a garden, you have to water and prune it. You have to keep the weeds from choking out the fruit or vegetables. You have to tend the garden, give it proper attention, or else it won't produce anything that can feed anyone.

Our lives and relationships with God are like that as well. We must be tending the garden that is our relationship with God or we won't produce anything that will feed anyone. In the realm of campus ministry, our main focus is discipleship. As campus pastors we are discipling leaders so that they can disciple others. If we don't keep our relationships with God well gardened, then we won't be able to produce anything that will feed or challenge those we are discipling. And we definitely won't be teaching them how to disciple others.

In order to eat or feed others from the garden that is my relationship with God, I must tend the garden. I must prune and feed and look after the garden for it to produce anything of worth.

Until then......