Christian Living

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My wife loves moonflowers. They are huge, exotic-looking and beautiful. So, every year I plant them. I start them in seed cups in early March and then transplant them outside after all danger of frost is past. I fertilize them, weed around them and water them every day it doesn’t rain (which this year was every day). In spite of this constant attention half of them die. Of the ones that remain, half of them never produce a bloom. The ones that do bloom push out maybe 6-12 blossoms before the fall frost takes them. The first blossom doesn’t appear until mid to late September. Why do I do this (beside the fact that I like sleeping next to my wife rather than the couch)? I do it because I remember how beautiful the blossoms were the year before.

I also love to grow vegetables. One of my favorites is carrots. I dig the furrows, I sprinkle in some starter soil and fertilizer and then with my clumsy carpenter fingers I try to spread the seeds, which are the size of this comma, evenly along the furrows. Then I get on my hands and knees and gently push the soil back on top of the seeds and pat it down. Next, I run a string the length of the furrows so I know where they are supposed to be growing (for weeding purposes). As they grow, I water them every day and weed and thin them out every week. If I try to pick them early, I have carrots the size of pencil lead (not pencils…just the lead). So, once again the reward for my labors in deferred; this time until October. Why do I do this? I don’t do it to save money because if you add up the seeds, starter soil, fertilizer, water and time I think it comes out to around $20 a carrot. I do it for two reasons. First, when I pop that first carrot into my mouth at harvest it is sweeter than candy and as fresh as the October day that surrounds me. Second, my wife takes the carrots and makes the sweetest, most delicious carrot soup you ever dipped a spoon into. It’s the memory of that sweetness and that soup that spurs me onward.

In a seemingly unrelated story, my neighbor has a cat. We don’t have a cat. And that information spread very quickly through the rodent community; making our yard prime chipmunk, rabbit and gopher real estate. It also made our yard excellent hunting ground for our neighbor’s cat. She would slink around the yard; through the grass and under the bushes (like the leopard she fancies herself to be) until she spotted her prey and the wild zigzag race would begin. I don’t think I ever saw her catch anything until two weeks ago. She just happened to be sitting two feet from a chipmunk hole when one popped out and foolishly did not look both ways before crossing the yard. Victory was hers! That cat no longer slinks around the yard. Every morning it parks itself two feet from that hole and waits…for hours. Despite the fact that for two weeks nothing has come out of that hole…still she waits. And nothing ever will come out of that hole (due to the fact that I flooded it with a hose. Okay, I admit it. I did it to minimize the chance of ever seeing that cat prancing by with a wiggling rodent in its teeth ever again. And don’t worry chipmunk-lovers; no chipmunks were drowned in the course of writing this article). Still, every morning there she is waiting. Why? Because she remembers that the only rodent she ever caught came out of that hole.

So there you have it: the moonflowers, the carrots and the chipmunks. The cat and I labor and wait; not on a promise but on a memory. We do it, not because we are assured of the outcome, but because we have a fond memory of what similar labor and care once produced.

Well, you knew it was coming, and here it is Why do I find it so hard to give a similar investment of my time and faith when I am praying for others? I mean, I’ll go to God with all the right intentions, I’ll make my requests as He asked but not two weeks later I’ve moved on, whether the prayer has been answered or not. Jesus says, “Ask…and keep on asking.” Paul says, “Pray…and don’t stop praying.” So, what’s my problem? Is a carrot or a flower more worthy of my time and faith than someone I love? And here’s the real kicker: the time, care and faith that all this effort will produce a moonflower, a carrot or even a chipmunk is based on the rewards of the past. Blight could kill my carrots or a rabbit eat them. A fungus could destroy my plant before I see a single blossom. Some weak-stomached human could flood my chipmunk hole. The point is there’s no promise the effort will produce the reward. Prayer, however, is completely different. I not only have the memory of past prayers being answered, I have a promise that present and future prayers will be answered as well.

So what gives? I think it’s time for me to put my money where my mouth is. That old saying simply means: if you believe in what you’re saying then back it up with something that is valuable to you. The most valuable thing I have is my knowledge of Jesus Christ; who He is, what He’s done and what He is willing to do. When I pray, that is what I need to back my prayers up with. I think my intercessory prayer, perhaps all my prayer, has become a memo to God:

“While you were out…Glenn called…could you please heal his daughter…will call back if he has the time.”

Jesus came into my life, healed me and gave me hope. He has walked every step with me since that day. And He has proved Himself faithful in countless ways, not the least of which was answering an untold number of my requests. It’s time for me to stop seeing my prayer time as just another item on my spiritual “To Do” list.

What I need to do is enter each prayer filled with the joy of the memory of all the answered prayers of the past; as well as full confidence in the promise of answered prayers in the future, then maybe it will become more than just a memo to the boss. Maybe it will be more like coming home from a rough day at school and hearing your Father call out to you from His study, “Welcome home, Son. Why don’t you come in here and tell me what’s on your mind today. Oh…and grab that bowl of carrots on the kitchen counter, will ya?”

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