A year ago, Mechanicsville Church of Christ (MCC) went to Mechanicsville Elementary School (MES) for a service day. MES had a learning garden that became over grown and was in terrible condition. We pulled up grass and weeds, put new weed blocker down, and mulch! It was great! It was fun and at the end of the day it looked incredible!

Recently, MCC went back to pray over MES and the new school year. I decided to go see how the garden was looking since we poured our blood, sweat, and tears into it. I was so disappointed! It was right back to the way it was before we did anything! I was heartbroken! I know that may sound strange, but a lot of planning and work went into that garden and now it seems like it was for nothing. I wondered what we did wrong. Did we not use the right weed blocker? Did we not get everything covered? Was it the wrong mulch?

I don’t blame the school, they have a lot going on and enough to maintain. I just hated seeing all that work now go into this project just to have it back to the way it was before.

But that’s exactly what happens in life.

As I thought about the garden, I realized that’s what happens over time in our own lives. Whichever aspects of our lives we don’t continually maintain will become overgrown and deteriorate. If you don’t keep a constant eye on your financial situation, you’ll find yourself in a lot of debt very quick. If you don’t work daily on your relationship with your spouse, you’ll wake up one day wondering who that person lying next to you in the bed. If you don’t work consistently on your spiritual life, you’ll dry up and find yourself with no relationship with God.

Without regular maintenance and upkeep, weeds begin to grow in every facet of our lives. It is the easiest way to fall and find ourselves in need. And the biggest contributor is complacency. To find ourselves in a good place in our relationships or spiritually, and simply coast. We, for some reason, think that once we reach a certain point, we will simply stay there.

It is so incredibly easy to become comfortable where we are in life. Where we are in our relationships with others and with God, that we simply stop working to improve. We settle because things are good, and before you know it, our lives are overgrown and nasty.

Just like the garden.

The same true of a pond. Unless there’s some movement in the pond, it becomes covered with algae and becomes nasty! There is a constant need to be growing and working in every aspect of our lives. Especially, in the relationships we care about most and are most critical. 

Let me briefly make three suggestions.

1. When it comes to your relationship with Christ, the beginning of a deeper relationship, as well as continued growth, is obedience. What areas of life are you not fully obedient to Christ?
2. Read more scripture. There’s a reason the Lord tells Joshua to meditate on Scripture day and night in Joshua 1:8.
3. When it comes to your relationships with others, how often are you completely present without distractions? Spend good quality time without the distractions of phones, social media, tv, kids, and other people or things that distract you from being fully there.

(I know there are other love languages besides quality time. We all express love in different ways. However, I truly believe there is something special about simply showing up and being present regardless of your love language. To find out more about love languages in general I highly recommend Gary Chapman’s book “The Five Love Languages”.)