All posts for the month April, 2012

The Kingdom of Heaven is Like a Community Garden

This morning I was one my way down the stairs to get our laundry from the basement when one of our neighbors stopped me.

“How does my wife get in on this garden thing?”

I began to explain our plan, but then he went inside to get his wife so she could talk to me in person. She leaned against the frame of her door, still in her pajamas, and asked what she had to do, if she had to pay anything. I told her that she’s welcome to contribute money or supplies, but that she’s also welcome to just help if she wants. Her husband said he’s not interested in gardening, but asked about a water source and offered to buy us two 40’ hoses so we can water the garden without hauling watering cans from the basement.

His wife had just two requests for plants: strawberries and sunflowers.

“I don’t need a lot of space for the sunflowers,” she said. “I just want to be able to see them.”

I told her that we can plant the strawberries in some of our tires (someone drove 30 miles on Monday to bring us a truck load of tires for free, so we have more space to plant) and we’ll make space in the plot for the sunflowers.

After I went back inside with my laundry, I wanted to jump around for joy. I was so excited that she wanted to join us, so full of joy and anticipation at how this garden is beginning to come together. This joy and anticipation stems from more than just excitement that the garden is happening (though I’m thrilled about that, too). It springs from how it’s happening, how the neighbors are being drawn in, one by one, how each one has something to bring, how we are honoring and making space for the desires of each person who has come. 

I can feel the Lord speaking to me about His Kingdom through this garden. I am struck by the way that He welcomes us when we come to Him. He honors us and invites us to bring our gifts and desires. In fact, He has been waiting for those gifts and desires because He has a place for them. We are invited to be co-laborers with Him, not just passive slaves to His plan.  In a small way, I feel like I have the opportunity to reflect that in the way I welcome and honor each neighbor who wants to help with this garden. As each neighbor has come forward and shared their desires for this garden and offered what they have to contribute (seeds, a friend with a truck, a couple hoses), I can see the Kingdom 

I also feel the Lord reminding me of His joy over even one person who answers His invitation to enter the Kingdom. I think about Luke 15, where Jesus tells the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal one, each story illustrating this extravagant joy over the return of the lost.

I think this garden is shaping up to be one of my favorite parts of this summer.

“I tell you, there will be the same kind of joy before the angels of God over one repentant sinner” (Luke 15:10).

8 Comments
by thelordshousekeeper on April 26, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Just Life

Posted by thelordshousekeeper on April 26, 2012

http://thelordshousekeeper.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/the-kingdom-of-heaven-is-like-a-community-garden/

The Best Laid Plans

Today I met with our neighbor Shiloh and her young daughter to plan our garden. Shiloh brought an armful of seed packets and I printed out a grid of our garden. Together we made a list of everything we wanted to plant.

We decided to try the block gardening method (also known as compact or square-foot gardening). Growing up, we always planted in rows. After doing some research, though, it looks like block (or compact) gardening sounds like the best option for maximizing a small garden space so we’re going to give that a try. We divided our (approximately) 10′x10′ garden into four 4′x4′ plots with walkways between them and put different vegetables in each square foot of garden space, depending on how much space that type of vegetable takes. We planned tomatoes, okra, and zinnias for the north/south sides of the gardens so they won’t shade the rest of the plants and gave the zucchini and sweet potatoes lots of room to spread out. We’ll probably add some pots of herbs, too, that can be moved around.

As of right now, our list of things to plant includes:

  • Tomatoes
  • Peppers (both sweet and hot)
  • Spinach
  • Beets
  • Zucchini
  • Lettuce
  • Sweet Potatoes
  • Bush Beans
  • Onions
  • Okra
  • Greens
  • Cilantro
  • Zinnias

The only things we couldn’t fit were sunflowers and butternut squash. I may still see if I can find a creative way to plant the butternut squash. In late summer we should be able to replace some of the earlier plants with some more cool weather plants (we missed the planting window for some of the spring crops).

Shiloh has some seeds already (include some that she’s started inside). Thursday the Kansas City Community Gardens starts selling the warm weather plants, so I plan on going to pick up some of those, plus whatever other seeds we need (I get ten free packets). Shiloh is going to see if her friend will go pick up a truckload of compost for us from Missouri Organic, too. We may even be able to start planting a few things tomorrow.

This garden is really happening!

2 Comments
by thelordshousekeeper on April 21, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in 101 in 1001, Garden
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Posted by thelordshousekeeper on April 21, 2012

http://thelordshousekeeper.wordpress.com/2012/04/21/the-best-laid-plans/

Peanut Butter Banana Bread

Confession: I tend to buy bananas, knowing that at least few of them will get brown before we eat them, just so I have an excuse to make banana bread.

This time I used several of them to make sugar-free, dairy-free ice cream (recipe below), so I just had two left. My usual banana bread calls for 3-4 bananas and I was out of applesauce (which I sometimes use to make up for some of the bananas). Not to be deterred, I decided to substitute peanut butter for the other banana. This was the result:

Peanut Butter Banana Bread

Ingredients:
2 ripe bananas
1/2 c. peanut butter
1/3 c. melted butter
1/2 c. sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 c, flour (I used 1 c. whole wheat and 1/2 c. all purpose)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Mash the bananas in a large mixing bowl. Add the melted butter, peanut butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla and mix well. Sprinkle the salt and baking soda on top and stir in. Finally stir in the flour. Spoon the batter into a greased bread pan and bake for 30-45 minutes or until browned.

Or, for another delicious banana/peanut butter combination, try this “ice cream” recipe that Lindsay passed on to me this spring (it’s naturally sugar-free and dairy-free):

Banana Peanut Butter Soft Serve “Ice Cream”

Ingredients:
2-3 ripe bananas, frozen (thawed slightly)
1/3 c. peanut butter
1/4 c. cocoa powder
1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in the food processor (to be honest, I don’t measure exactly so these are just guesses) and process on high until creamy. Eat immediately (as if you could resist this long anyway).

6 Comments
by thelordshousekeeper on April 21, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by thelordshousekeeper on April 21, 2012

http://thelordshousekeeper.wordpress.com/2012/04/21/peanut-butter-banana-bread/

Tilled

Do you know what that is?

Yes, it’s dirt. But more importantly, it’s tilled dirt. Tilled dirt in our garden. Finally.

I spent the past month waiting for one thing after another to happen before the plot would be ready to plant. First I waited for the community gardens to call to set up a time to till (I was told their waiting list was pretty long and some people had signed up way back in January). Then, because it rained a lot while I waited, I waited for the maintenance guy to come mow the grass. But he didn’t mow it short enough, so then I waited to find a weed eater I could borrow to cut the grass short enough so it could be tilled (in the meantime, the grass grew again).

Finally on Tuesday, I borrowed a weed eater from one of my coworkers. As soon as I got I home, I spent the last light of dusk chopping down weeds and grass. I cut a space as big as I could while the battery lasted. After I finished, I took my garage sale shovel and tried to turn some of the dirt to see what it looked like. The grass roots resisted the shovel, though, and the dirt was hard with clay. I went inside wondering if they could possibly till that ground and whether anything would ever grow in it.

The next day I called the tilling guy on my lunch break. He came that very afternoon while I was at work still. When I came home, our garden plot was waiting, tilled and ready.

So there it is. A bit bumpy still, with a fair amount of clay. But it’s tilled and can be planted. Maybe this weekend even….

7 Comments
by thelordshousekeeper on April 19, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Garden
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Posted by thelordshousekeeper on April 19, 2012

http://thelordshousekeeper.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/tilled/

That the Guilty May Live

Tomorrow a large portion of the Christian world celebrates Good Friday, remembering the day that an innocent man died so that the guilty could live and live abundantly.

It seems appropriate, then, that today my attention is glued to the news story of Anthony Belton’s trial, a guilty man who murdered a gas station clerk. That clerk happened to be my friend Matt. Back in 2008, early in the morning on August 13, Belton robbed the gas station convenience store where Matt was finishing up a third shift. After Matt handed over all the money in the cash register, Belton shot him in the back of the head.

The following week, hundreds of people flocked to his funeral, so many that the building could not contain them all. I heard story after story from people who described Matt’s generosity, his gentleness, the way he always had time for people, the way he reached out to people. In a quiet, unassuming way, he had impacted so many lives.

Now, nearly four years later, Belton is finally on trial. Yesterday he was (not surprisingly) found guilty of aggravated murder and aggravated robbery. The trial has moved into the sentencing phase and Belton very likely faces the death penalty.

This grieves me deeply. For the past three and a half years, every time I think of this case, this trial, this man, something in my spirit groans for mercy. Even in those first few days after Matt was shot, as we tried to process through what happened, I felt deeply compelled to show grace to Belton. I had recently finished reading What’s So Amazing About Grace? by Phillip Yancy and felt that, in some way, this was the final exam of what God had been teaching me about His amazing, radical grace.

I have found, though, that suggesting mercy for a murderer unleashes some vicious opposition. The comments on news stories about the trial are filled with statements like:

“Excellent News. Another POS off the streets.”
“Show him the kindness he showed Mr. Dugan.”
“He is a waste of taxpayer money.”
“Juice em’.”
“There’s nothing to debate…….lights OUT.”
“Lights out punk.”

Oh Jesus. Mercy.

What grieves me even more, is that this “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” attitude is so prevalent, even within the church. The same people who gushed about Matt’s generosity, compassion, and love for Jesus, staunchly demand justice and death for Belton and react in disbelief that I could suggest anything different.

Why is mercy so hard to fathom?

To offer mercy to a murderer…that’s radical, I know. But do we realize how radical the grace that we received is? Do we believe that it is somehow less radical because we have not robbed a store or shot a man to death? Have we deluded ourselves into believing that there is a hierarchy to transgression, that we are basically good as long as we have not climbed to a certain rung on that ladder?

Jesus tells us otherwise. In the same chapter that He overturns that justification of “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” with the call to turn the other cheek and love our enemies, He tells us that anyone who has been angry with their brother is as guilty as a murderer:

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ [a term of contempt, which means something along the lines of “You idiot!”] is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell” (Matthew 5:21-22).

I have been angry. I have been hateful. I have been desperate. I have been guilty, deserving of judgment, even of death. I would be deluded to pretend otherwise.

But yet, I have received mercy. I have been showered with love, life, and good gifts, even beyond what I need or ask for. Do I deserve this, simply because I have managed to make it twenty-four years into my life without killing someone?

Life is my right, yes. But not because of my innocence, in myself. Not because I am basically a good person.

No, life is my right because of an innocent Man who died so that I might live, who shed innocent blood to cover my guilt, who took the judgment and death I deserve upon Himself so that I am washed clean and set free. There is nothing about this that trivializes my guilt. Likewise, advocating for mercy for Belton does not trivialize what he did. What it does is speak of the great love and mercy I have been shown that compels me to go and do the same.

And so I am praying fervently, with tears running down my face, for the courts to spare the life of guilty man. Please, join me.

Update: This afternoon (April 6) Belton was sentenced to death. He is scheduled to be executed on August 1. Though I am obviously grieved by that sentence, I am believe his life is in God’s hands as much as ever and am still praying that he encounters the Lord deeply before that time. 

1 Comment
by thelordshousekeeper on April 5, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by thelordshousekeeper on April 5, 2012

http://thelordshousekeeper.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/that-the-guilty-may-live/

Shed Your Shoes

This weekend over a hundred of us from the Boiler Room caravanned out to Prairie Star Ranch for the annual spring retreat, a refreshing blend of vacation, family reunion, and deep times with the Lord. We had sweet moments of worship together, powerful clusters of prayer for one another, large meals together, a bonfire every night, and hours of free time to wander through woods and along lakes. My sunburned neck bears witness to the hours I spent outside, surrounded by beauty. My heart, likewise, was deeply marked by the personal ways that God reaffirmed my identity in Him over the weekend and highlighted several places in my heart He wants to sift.

After lunch on Saturday, I found myself with a large chunk of free time, so I meandered down around the lake. To be honest, I was grumbling to the Lord a bit about how I just wanted to feel loved (more and more lately I have been aware of this desire rising up in my heart – and recognizing the ways I tend to respond to that desire – so the Lord and I have been working through that together).

Eventually, still grumbling a bit, I moved away from the Lake and into the woods. As I wandered down the path, I remembered how, as a child, I had loved exploring the words around my grandpa’s cabin in central Michigan. I spent hours there, wading in the creek, balancing on logs, and collecting colored stones, wildflowers, and tiny frogs, treasures of the woods. As I recalled those memories, I felt God encouraging me to explore like a child again.

So I rambled down towards the stream, where I found a pile of shoes discarded along the banks. I could hear children’s voices and laughter from around the bend. Remembering the Lord’s encouragement to explore like a child, I shed my own sandals and waded into the stream. I followed it until I found the cluster of Boiler Room children, feet submerged in the water as they scooped up tiny frogs. There were hundreds of these frogs along the stream. They hopped into the leaves and jumped into the stream every time we took a step, the patter of dozens of tiny bodies launching and landing sounding like raindrops. I marveled with the children at the frogs’ tiny webbed feet, the mottled brown and green of their backs, and the kicking motion they made as they swam away through the water.

It was while we waded through the stream, collecting frogs, that we saw them: mushrooms. Not just any mushrooms, though. Morel mushrooms. We spotted just a few at first, their spongy tops jutting out from the bank of the stream by an old dead tree.

I pointed them out to the children and one exclaimed, “Those are the ones my dad likes!”

When we went closer, scrambling up the muddy bank to reach them, I saw that there were more than just a few. I could see dozens of them scattered around the tree, peeping out from under leaves and barely hidden behind logs.

We picked a few to bring back with us, carrying them like fragile trophies as we waded back down the stream. As we splashed back through the water, the Lord began to speak to me about how this is the way we treasure hunt with Him, when we become like children. We cast aside our shoes and our grown-up agendas to simply explore, delighting in even the simple things: the slippery brush of moss under our feet, the flutter of frogs’ feet on our hands, a crayfish scuttling through the water. In the midst of this, we find treasure.

Later that afternoon, I returned with a friend to collect more of the mushrooms. We filled a produce box and had still only gathered about half of them. The following day, a group of us returned again and collected the rest, filling more bags and boxes to carry back home. I felt like this treasure, though a personal gift from the Lord, was meant to be shared, so I set aside a few for Derek and I and invited people to come take what they wanted of the rest.

When we came home Sunday afternoon, I cleaned my mushrooms and soaked them in salt water for a few hours, then sautéed them in butter with asparagus and tortellini. They were incredible, so tender and full of flavor. Delicious.

14 Comments
by thelordshousekeeper on April 4, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by thelordshousekeeper on April 4, 2012

http://thelordshousekeeper.wordpress.com/2012/04/04/shed-your-shoes/

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