The Garden Beneath Our Striving
Where Control Becomes Trust
“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” 1 Corinthians 3:6
Most of us do not need help accepting what feels good.
Duh!
When the answer comes, or the door opens, we receive it gladly.
Acceptance is hard when life gives us what we did not choose and cannot change.
The Serenity Prayer gives language for that place: peace for what is beyond our hands, courage for what love has placed within reach, and wisdom to know the difference.
The Work Of The Gardener
A gardener can loosen soil, plant seed, water roots, pull weeds, and protect what is tender.
But no gardener can command a seed to open.
He cannot pull fruit into season or make roots grow deeper by tugging on the stem. Some things are harmed by the very force we thought would help them.
Often, we start trying to force a harvest when Abba only placed seeds in our hands.
What Love Places Within Reach
Christ is our life, and His Spirit teaches us how to participate without pretending we are the source. (Read again)
Love gives us words to speak, a boundary to set, forgiveness to offer, or one faithful step. Love also invites us to release another person’s response, the timing, the outcome, and the fruit we cannot make appear.
The Growth We Can Trust
Acceptance is not resignation.
It is placing what our hands cannot heal into Abba’s hands, where love has been holding it all along.
Our hands have a holy place in the garden, but they were never meant to become the sun, the rain, or the life inside the seed.
The garden is not waiting for our control.
It is already alive in Abba’s care.
Reflection
Where have I been trying to force a harvest that can only be entrusted?
What has love placed in my hands to tend today?
What would acceptance look like as trust?
Prayer
Abba Father, teach my hands to tend what love has given and release what only You can hold. Help me trust Your growth. Amen.