The Spiritual Discipline....of Composting?

Well dear reader, yes, the spiritual discipline of composting.  What on earth is that! (You might be thinking).  I remember reading Henry Nouwen's Genesee Diary and being amazed at the way God would teach him through daily, mundane tasks at the monastery.  The little things that he saw God in - I looked at that and thought, "wow, to be that 'spiritual' or close to God or whatever".  Well, let me just tell you, God finds the funniest things sometimes to reveal truth to us. And for me this weekend it was my pile of decomposing greens out in the compost heap. I think a spiritual discipline is something that we enter into for the sake of purposing to know Jesus better.  For example fasting points us to our dependence on him and creates space where we listen and know Jesus more. So why not composting?

I'm very new to composting, pretty green you might say (haha).  My composting lecturer (yes, I did attend a composting lecture that was fantastic by the way) did mention that summer composting in Phoenix can be tricky. So the composting isn't going as smoothly as I imagined my greens and coffee grounds turning into lovely sweet smelling compost. But hey, good things are growing out of it.  Composting is hard work in the summer; I break a good sweat turning that heap routinely.  I'm attempting hot composting where the internal breaking down the the materials and the right combination of elements create this fantastic heat and result in a the nutrient rich stuff for the garden later (at least that is the idea).

So let me try to set this up for you: On my counter is a green ceramic collecting canister for the compost materials from my kitchen.  In the top of the lid is this black charcoal filter that is suppose to help with the smell.  So Saturday night I was at a fabulous concert singing my lungs out to Jesus.  He was telling me all sorts of truth and bestowing gracious freedom as we worked through some stuff there.  And as I looked up at the ceiling in this place, well it looked a lot like the inside of the compost canister lid and I had this thought, "Huh! I'm in the compost bin!" and then came the truth part

I was someone else's refuse, rejected and thrown away; seen to have no purpose.  To them I was not good enough, I had nothing they valued.  But Jesus sees it differently.  He scooped me up and put me in His compost bin.  Things get broken down in there. And if it's a good mix, they really aren't recognizable anymore when they emerge because they've been transformed  He's working it, turning it, sometimes letting it get hot.  But when He is finished, what once was someone else' broken and discarded trash will bring life to the rest of the garden.  


So now every time I put something in the collecting canister, or take the whole thing out and add it to the bin out back, or I struggle to turn the pile, I will think of the glorious thing that God is doing. That he had different plans for me and that His work will pay off.

I get really excited about composting, even though I'm pretty terrible at it.  But God's a master Gardener and since I don't have to be perfect, I laugh at my efforts and smile with a dirt smudged face at my Father and rejoice that He's making beautiful things.