The Mind of Christ, the Gardener

 Let both of them grow together until the harvest;

 --- From Matthew 13:24-30,36-43

So God knows our thoughts. He knows the future. Our response is to focus, to avoid the immediate and the carnal, and to wait. Patience is a great spiritual value. It puts us in control of our own destinies, to some degree. It puts God in control. It allows us to see the magic that is invisible to us.

The sinful being sees only what he or she sees. He concentrates on his feelings, and emotions.

The spiritual being sees beyond that. She observes the invisible. She builds patience, and love, and learns to sacrifice.

Our "Me Generation" does not get that. Everything is always couched in the framework of "I have to be who I really am." "I have to take care of myself first."

But life, and the world, isn't a commercial flight with a change in cabin pressure, where you put your mask on first. No . . . it is a crisis already in place, and it has provided those of us with strength, already masked. That's what it means to "equip" us. We are okay - - - but others are needy . . . NOW!

And the paradox is, to see the urgent needs, we have to be patient. Because when we're patient, we're no longer thinking about ourselves. When we're patient we know that there is more, beyond this life. When we're patient, and spirit-lead, we can endure anything . . . for we have tasted of God's Kingdom.

A gardener must be patient. The vegetables are literally calling out for water, when they need it. You can see it as they lose their color slightly. You can see the weeds growing up around them. The need is apparent, and urgent. Yet the gardener is not panicking. The process itself is long, lasting months, and enduring all kinds of conditions. You water a little. You pull weeds. You're out in the middle of the garden. You train yourself to notice little things. You develop an affinity for the health of your expected produce.

That's the difference.

Some people help the poor by talking about it. They make us all feel guilty because we're not doing more. They try to get you to vote for people that can talk about it in the most eloquent ways. They make it all sound so urgent, which it is. But their solution is still, to talk about it.

Like a gardener, we just need to go out into the field. Develop the eyes that see faint signs of despair. Do what we can. We're too busy actually helping, to think about immediate, selfish needs, of our own.

Patience, the eyes of God, little acts of love and kindness. These are the marks of the person that is growing into the mind of Christ.