Spring Preparation--Bringing Good out of the Poop — Broken & Hopeful

One of my favorite times of year is when I start preparing the soil of my garden beds for spring. I think I tend to romanticize it a little as I tend the soil and imagine all the little seedlings popping up. There is such hope in that care, but I forget what is really going on in that preparation.

First, I add compost—poop essentially. And other rotten food pieces that have been processed by time, decomposition and earthworms to form some lovely rich stuff. Regardless of the potential I see in this addition, though, it comes down to being kinda gross. My kids always laugh about my having to put poop on my garden. 

And then I churn up the soil, mixing the compost in and messing it all around. I disturb all the quiet rest the soil experienced over the winter as I get it prepared for planting. 

Finally, the garden is ready for seeds. Only with this preparation, though, will it bring forth the harvest for which I’m hoping. And I can’t help but compare this process to what people experience before they come to a deeper revelation of Jesus in their own lives.

So many people sit in my office feeling like failures. They think because they are coming for counseling they have hit a new low. I get it, but I believe the opposite is true. If you are in a place of looking for something to change and are willing to do something about it, I have so much respect for you. I never see people who come to see me as having failed out but rather as being prepared to have the courage to face some hard stuff with strength they maybe have never had before.

These people have experienced a lot of rot, plenty of poop in their lives. Hard experiences, hurts that haven’t diminished in power, painful relationships that continue to this day. And their lives have been churned up and disturbed by whatever it is that brings them to see me. I make people laugh by telling them that no one comes to see me because they have an awesome life with no problems, but it’s the truth. When you get to a place where you are willing to look to someone else to push through some of this tough stuff, you are really hurting.

But in that preparation, I see so much hope. It is a chance to go deeper with God, to experience revelation of His Life within you and to see how the hurts of the past have no power over you anymore! It is a place of freedom and healing. Facing the stuff in your life and walking through it with the Counselor (I do mean the Holy Spirit here, not me) allows you to be ready for all the little seedlings God wants to grow in you. Without the preparation, you won’t be ready. 

I think of Genesis 50:20 when Joseph recognizes that even though his brothers sold him into slavery (and a lot of terrible things happened after that before he finally made it big with Pharaoh), that their intention was not the end. God had a purpose in all of it, and although it was painful and I’m sure frustrating at times, Joseph saw that God intended good to come out of all the junk. 

I wonder if you could see the hard stuff in your life as part of that preparation for moving forward rather than the thing that might end you, what change would be made in your perspective? There are many things in my life that I thought would end me, but God has made these stepping stones for new places. I don’t enjoy pain, but I realize the purpose in it. And I hope that whatever situation you find yourself in today, you will turn to Him and have His eyes for the situation. When you see Jesus in it, you realize you can’t lose. He always loves, always reveals and always brings hope, even in the darkest places. So, celebrate your weakness, for it’s in the weakness that His strength can be revealed even more. 

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. Genesis 50:20