In the fall a little over a year ago I planted garlic in the
community garden at Our Savior Lutheran Church (read my blog post about it if
you don’t remember: Doing a Dumb Thing).
When I planted the garlic I was so worried it wouldn’t make
it through the winter. I thought the garlic would just have to make
it through the winter and then I would be able to take care of it and I would
be able to ensure it would grow and turn out well. But plans change. I left my staff position at Our Savior last spring,
which meant to a certain extent I was around to take care of it, but I wasn’t able
to give the garlic the attention I thought I would be able to give it.
Other people are now in charge of the garden and the care of
the garlic and all the other wonderful things that grow in that garden.
Planting the garlic in the fall required a lot of trust that
everything would turn out ok. Then I
found myself in the spring when I thought I would be able to regain some
control actually having even less control.
I had to trust that other people would take care of the
garlic. Above all I had to trust that what
I planted was not planted in vain.
The garlic is perhaps the most physically evident part of
the work at Our Savior that I started and then entrusted to other people. Ministries I started or deeply invested in have
and will continue to morph, change, and end.
We all know change is hard.
For so many reasons and in so many ways life usually doesn’t go as we
thought it might or imagined it could.
We are given the choice then to defiantly grasp on to what might have
been, or we can release that and learn to embrace all the blessings that are to
come.
I would be lying if I didn’t admit that it was SO HARD to
release what I had given so much of my time, energy, and passion to. It was so hard to concede that I couldn’t do
everything. To come to terms with the
fact that I won’t always be able to see the harvest (literally and
figuratively). To accept that this
season of my life was ending.
But as time as went on I realized that by no means was it an
end…more of a transition than anything.
I have seen the building of ministry continue at Our Savior. I have seen people rise and take on new or
bigger roles. I have seen the love and
compassion of Christ continually displayed in and through people at Our Savior.
Through mourning and releasing what was and what could have
been, I have found so much freedom and joy in discovering what God has in store
for me in this next season of my journey!
And as far as I know, the garlic did well.
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| The garlic in late May growing! |
