December 13, 2013
Too Much of a Good Thing
My recently married daughter didn’t want to move
her succulent houseplant across the state, so she left it in my care. The plant
always looked spindly and thirsty, but I didn’t realize until it was too late
that Bill was watering it also. I’m afraid we drowned the poor thing, or in
Bill’s words, “We loved it to death.” Paul uses an agricultural analogy to show
the lifecycle of the Gospel, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God
made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is
anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who
plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded
according to his own labor.” (1 Cor 3:6-8 NIV) It’s wonderful that God rewards
our labor, but now I’m wondering how He might feel about over-watering a new
believer.
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----When I was a “new believer”, I couldn’t get enough water. Knowing now of heavy water, deuterium, they call it, I wonder if there might not also be a lite water. There’s a “lite” everything else. And I think the honest drift of all this liteness is that the extra cost to make something more substantial does not have to be invested. You know; a penny saved is a penny earned. Plus a bonus! People who think they’re getting better by getting “lite” will actually pay more for what cost less to produce! I think one thing the Lord did not make “lite” in this world is nuts.
-----So what? I know. I digressed. But if I had known as a “new believer” that there was a heavy water, I’d have wanted it! But I thirsted for even normal water. I know I was being soaked to death by that whatever which I thought was lite water. There were just so many clichés. Everywhere to every question was offered another cliché! And if I was so rarely fortunate to get some educated one to open up his can of ideas, they all came out, well, canned. It was like everybody was buying their Christianity vacuum packed and bubble wrapped.
-----I still feel deeply guilty. When I went off to Ozark Bible College, I think Moms (one mother and one step-mother) and Dad and Lloyd McMillan and lots of people around the church thought I was off to become a preacher. Gag! Not hardly! But I was too timid and simply too downright scared of everybody to straighten out their misperceptions, which I probably had a great deal in producing. I wanted some heavy water! I wanted to know where the Bible came from, how it got to us today, it’s original languages, how to know what it is saying, and how I could really conclude that it was God who did write it, if such a conclusion could be drawn.
-----Now, forty-one years later, I have yet to discover water lite. It was all in my imagination that I was being drenched in water lite. My beloveds were all pouring upon me real water. Since then I have discovered that regular water contains deuterium. And I’ve learned that there’s a process to separate it, if you really want it enough to work hard for it: “My son, if you receive My words and treasure up My commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you cry out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding; He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and preserving the way of His saints. Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; discretion will watch over you; understanding will guard you.” (Prov 2:1-11)
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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