growing – Aspirational Adventures

From benjaminharrismusings.blogspot.com and https://vamosarema.com/

On Sunday our vicar gave us all a small packet with a mustard seed in and used it to expanded on the story Jesus said about having faith the size of a mustard seed.

He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Matthew 17:20 and Luke 17:6

And we were all told to take this home, plant it and see how big it had grown by Christmas.

I worried the whole time I was going to lose it so as soon as we’d had lunch, and before taking the dog for a walk, I made sure mine was safely planted and watered.

When I pondered my attitude to this, it reminded me of when I first really met with God and how I knew from that moment on the The Creator of The Universe loved me unconditionally even though I was a single mum and not living the best life. The faith I got from that moment I was terrified of losing and so I did everything I could to water it, to grow it, to nurture it – reading my Bible, praying, going to Christian conferences, reading Christian books, going to church, being involved with church, going on mission, etc, etc. Ok there have been times when I haven’t done any of those things and have wombled on with God in a contented way still. I have never lost that faith, have seen it grow, have seen it tested, have seen it wobble, but, for the most part, have always trusted.

So I got to wondering what other people might have done with their mustard seed representing faith. [this is all speculation and not about anyone specific]

some left it at church – which is often where we can all leave our faith and do not take it home and use it at home.
some have it in their pockets still and will find it on and off when they put that coat on again – again a bit like we do with faith and find it and then forget it, then find it again but never really take it out.
some will keep it in their “going to church jacket” and will bring it out each time they are at church – which again we are all great at doing, of having great faith when we are with a company of other believers but struggle when we are on our own.
some will have lost it as they walked home – which again is what happens to faith often. The hassles of life get in the way and we lose our faith that God can.
some will have seen it as just another daft thing and won’t have engage with it – again that is what can happen when we talk about things like God working all things to the good of those who love him [Romans 8:28]. It can seem a daft thing and so we ignore it.
some will plant their seed but then will forget about it and it won’t grow, or it will grow a little bit but won’t be nurtured.
some might expect someone else to plant it for them, a spouse, friend or someone else they know – and again we all too often lean into someone else’s faith rather than our own. It is important to have friends with faith around us to hold us up but we cannot rely just on their faith. We do need our own too.
And some won’t have believed in it at all and found it all total nonsense.

Interestingly I was reading that the mustard seed is an easy seed to grow. It doesn’t need much to grow from this tiny seed to a plant that you can then use the leaves of in all sorts of cuisine. Though interestingly the article also says that economically there is no reason to grow mustard seeds, although the novelty value is good – being able to produce a jar of your own mustard to share with friends. Again this is an interesting point to take back to our mustard seed of faith. How many of us think what’s the point? Nothing will change, nothing will happen, or even “I can do it quicker myself”.

Maybe the “novelty value” has something to say to us about our faith, and about that inner feeling of connection with something higher than us.

Faith is the moving of those mountains of sickness, of poverty, of inequality, of war and aggression. But it is also that inner peace, inner, tranquillity, inner joy, inner trust, inner knowing that I am not alone, that I am love unconditionally by the Creator of The Universe. And that with that tiny bit of faith I can grow, I can flourish and maybe it is because of my faith that the birds can find shelter?

Then Jesus asked, “What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds perched in its branches.”

Luke 13:18-19

Or as David Marks says in Garden Focused – key reasons for growing mustard in the UK is to use it as a green manure on the soil. Now I’m all up for being a fertiliser for all things God!

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Renly relaxing on Boxing Day after a big hike. Photographed by myself December 2024

Ok yes I know dogs get trained to sit, stay, wait, and random things like roll over, etc but I don’t think dogs see everything that goes on in their world as a lesson but too often I hear it from people.

I read an interesting article and when I commented on it the author of the article said he’d been waiting to share as he couldn’t work out what the lesson was. My reply to his reply was “did there have to be a lesson?”

I think too often we humans think every thing that goes on is meant to teach us something and I’m sure some things are, but really is everything?

In 2012-2013 we went through a series of untimely deaths and other random changes in our lives. Was that a lesson? If so I’m not sure what it. Or was it just “things happen and sometimes they happen at the same time”?

The more I’ve seen and done and prayed and pondered the more I think that even though not everything is a lesson per se – because God isn’t some great big teacher wanting us to pass tests all the time – I do think that I have learned things from them and have changed as a person.

It might sound like splitting hairs but I think there is a big difference between learning things and things being a lesson. I think that we can choose to learn things but if something is a lesson there is a specific “thing” to be gained from that.

Also I think if we are open to learning things then yes “every day is a school day” but also it doesn’t mean that we are waiting for a specific something to happen to learn something.

It also means that we have no fear of what the “teacher” is going to say or if we miss the point being made. There is no worrying about what that lesson was.

I home schooled my children up till they were fifteen and people used to often ask what “lessons” we did and how we worked in school holidays. Well because every moment of every day was a chance to learn something all of us, myself included, were always open to what was going on around us, always curious, always expecting something to show up. Not every moment was a lesson that came with outcomes and things that I could tell the home schooling inspector but, on the whole, we learned and changed and grew and explored things on a regular basis.

So I don’t think God is up there with a lesson plan for us but I do think they want us to be open and aware of what is going on around us. They want us to become more who we are called to be, to know and love ourselves, those around us and of course them more and more.

So not everything is a lesson but everything is an opportunity to be open to learning and growing.