digging deep

When the weather's fine (and it wasn't too bad today), Saturdays give me the chance to be out for a bit in the garden. There are always things to do!

I've been working away, just bit by bit, in the patch of ground at the front. The north-facing bit, which started as turf (I'm reluctant to say it was ever a lawn!) and then became a breeding ground for a few hundred generations of dandelions - which was fine when we had a tortoise since the beast seemed to love them [the fact that it died is nothing to do with that diet, I hasten to add!].

Latterly even the dandelions seemed to give up in the face of the creeping carpet of moss.

The end result was that that little patch of ground had slowly fallen into a largely lifeless state of horticultural disrepair.

I'm trying to avoid using the word 'mess', but I may as well admit it here and now. Not because of a lack of good intention nor a lack of real endeavour on my part. But, well, as I said before, 'garden' really had to be done a different way.

And I've been thinking again today how apt and very graphic this all is as a picture of the church throughout our land. It has that kind of 'tired' and dull and damp and sort of 'mossy' feel about it half the time - and that despite the well-intentioned efforts over many, many years.

There's a need for a long overdue renewal these days.

Just like that patch of garden at the front.

So that's what I'm doing. It's quite a size of ground and so it'll take a bit of time. But I've got a sort of 'vision' for it now (the garden, I mean - although I have that sort of vision for the church as well!) and I've started doing the digging since I'm going to change the shape of things and make of it the sort of little garden that's appealing to the eye, a garden that is full of life and colour and of variety throughout.

And at the same time, doesn't kill me in the effort of maintaining it!

You can see the obvious parallels! And you can see why my mind is always making these comparisons when I'm out there doing the work!

Last week I put down some Feed & Weed sort of stuff. The sort of thing which has a lovely picture of beautiful green lawns on the front and leads me to think that mine will be the same.

The bits that I want to keep in grass (or see being turned from moss to grass) I treated last weekend. But one week on ... oh, dear, what a mess! I mean it has all the appeal of a building site now. Worse than ever!

However, I've done this before and it came all right in the end. And anyway, I'm an optimist and I'm stubborn, and I've learned to live in hope. So I'm sticking with it and working round it.

And one day, it'll all be pretty good. The garden I've envisioned which demands a second look.

The way I want the church to be as well. Turning eyes. Raising questions. Meeting Christ.

But I guess, sometimes when you start to move towards that end, just like my little patch of garden out the front, it goes from bad to worse, from all that dull, uninteresting moss to dreadful dust and dirt.

I live in hope! And press on with the work. And one day, yes, one day there'll be something here which once again will turn the eyes of everyone around!