Thursday, April 28, 2005

The Warrior vs. The Gardener

The other day in class I heard a wonderful suggestion from one of my classmates (who was quoting some famous other I think): instead of Christians thinking of themselves as warriors, a better example would be to think of themselves as gardeners. Now, at first I thought "that probably isn't very attractive to too many people," but the young man went on.

Gardeners know when to be patient and went to prune. Gardeners know when you've had enough food and water, and know when you're all dried up and in need of some life. A good gardener removes the weeds that could potentially choke the plant. And most importantly, they don't treat a 10 year old plant the way they treat a 10 month old one.

I like thinking of Christians as being gardeners rather than warriors. Having worked at a greenhouse all throughout high school, it seems like it takes much more dedication to be a gardener Christian than it does being a warrior Christian. Now don't misunderstand me, I'm not undermining the whole warrior mentality---I'm just trying to point out that perhaps being warrior-ready may not be the kind of person were supposed to be. After all, what happens when you've been a warrior-Christian your whole life, only to realize your biggest roadblock in living and sharing the gospel out was the way you were to others and the way you were to yourself? Each person, each Christian is different. And we'd be silly to think that one "method" or "approach" would work for everyone.

2 comments:

Chalupa said...

wow - that's deep

Wee Marry Merry said...

Perhaps a Christian should be a gardener and a warrior? To have that gentle side of a gardener and that strong side of a warrior. To know when to "remove the weeds" and when to be like a fighter. When I think of a warrior, I also think of a bull dog. Once a bull dog bites on something, it never let go and I think our faith should be like that - never letting go of Jesus! And as a Christian, there's spiritual warfare to be fought.. and that's when we have to fight fight fight and claim our victory in Christ Jesus!