Along the far side of the house there is an area where garden supplies are stored. And by “stored,” I might mean neatly stacked or haphazardly dropped in absolutely no organizational pattern whatsoever. I will decline to say which category the bulk of the “stuff” fits into.
Among the various useful — but currently unused — items, there is a large clay pot with contents that are not currently serving their intended decorative purpose. You see, this large container holds a collection of nested containers of similar pots intended for future use. See? That part of the garden equipment was neat.
Most of them are empty, except for the purpose of holding other empty vessels. As I wander past them, surveying the damage of the winter freezes, I glance their way and dream of their potential contents; spilling flowers and sedums over the edges in floriferous summer splendor.
But right now, they are dry, cold, empty, and naked. Rather ugly, too.
As I ponder the irony of the container containing only other containers, I think of other ways we replicate this scene in a spiritual sense.
Think about the phrase “In love with love.” Doesn’t that give the impression that there really isn’t much genuine love there at all? It is a thought containing the concept of love, the sentiment without the substance. Just like an empty pot holding another.
How about a speech about communication? Having spent many years in the telecommunications business, I always chuckled inwardly in meetings where I was subjected to endless droning words about communicating, without much exchange of ideas.
In each of these, the true purpose of the word itself is rendered useless as it is used to “contain” a concept, which may then be trapped into uselessness — just like my stack of pots.
Similarly, I don’t care to sing songs about singing songs. We have a few songs in our hymnals that strike me as such, and do not end up actually addressing our Lord in worshipful song. It is singing about singing. I’m not much of a singer, and I yearn for the day when my voice will sound pleasant to myself as I sing God’s praises. But while I wait for that day to come, I will simply sing in worship as the good Lord asks me; not simply sing about it.
Some prayers can accidentally fall into an exercise in addressing the audience about what we are going to pray about, when the audience should be God. A container containing a container. Pots of pots.
It may be time for some of us to stop talking about talking, loving love, singing about singing, and just roll up our sleeves and do these things.
A few weeks ago I dragged out some of those pots and planted some old, almost-forgotten bulbs in them, then scattered some spare poppy and parsley seeds on the tops of the soil. While this might not result in the overflowing, colorful bounty that I had in my mind, these pots now have a useful purpose. They hold hope of blooms and food for the spring and summer! (1 Corinthians 9:10.)
Make something beautiful happen. Plan your plans, but work your work. Don’t just let the plans and words stack up uselessly.
–by Christine Berglund @ www.forthright.net