My Ministry Garden – Raised Catholic 172

The following is a transcript of a Raised Catholic podcast.

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Today is episode 172: My Ministry Garden

Hi friends. This week I returned from a rainy day run and was stretching my legs along the rock wall in front of my little house when I felt compelled to start a project that had needed tending for some time. The rock wall itself is old and in need of repair. Round stones from the middle and slate pieces from the top have found themselves expelled by the wall over time, due to the changing of seasons and the lack of good cohesion. The whole thing needs a serious overhaul honestly, but in my household, rock walls are not exactly my area of responsibility. If you’re listening to this episode or more likely, reading the transcript, and you are the only other member of my household besides the dog, you might consider this a hint, but hey, let’s move on.

On this day while stretching, I noticed the first green shoots from a perennial that we planted maybe ten or fifteen years ago. When we first planted it and some hostas and phlox along the rock wall, we made a defined border between the plants and the grass. It was a line of demarcation which we marked with wood mulch, but since then, the grass has seriously impinged on the plants’ territory, to the point that this particular plant was filled with grass. Each year, I pull these long grasses from the center of this perennial and each year it seriously bugs me every time I have to do that. I’ve never caught the plant’s growth early enough in the season to pull the grasses up from the root before they grow up together in the spring, but this was the year.

So, there I was, sweaty from my rainy run, down on my hands and knees and scraping at and pulling up grasses, trying not to hurt the plant. To clear that one plant kind of took forever, and along the way I noticed just how far the grass had encroached on the wall itself as well – there were probably four or five full inches of the top of the stone wall that I exposed in spots simply from scraping away and pulling up that grass. And there was so much more to do, but after about an hour, my hands and my knees ached, there was an incredible amount of dirt underneath my fingernails, I had disturbed at least a couple of pretty disgusting looking earthworms, and it was well past time for a shower and some lunch.

Now what, you may be asking, does this story have to do with the exploration of our faith or our ministry lives? As it turns out, plenty. There are tons of garden and growing metaphors in the Bible. Jesus Himself called our attention to the lilies of the field and gave us the parables of the wheat and the weeds and the seeds planted in varying types of soil. Plants and plantings are ripe with metaphor, and it should not be missed that the creation story itself starts in a garden, as does Jesus’ Passion, death, and resurrection.

As I scraped away and pulled at the embedded grasses in my rock wall, the various metaphors of this process to the excavation of my faith life rose up clear as day. For one, this was a messy job, and painful too, and I couldn’t always see my progress with the kind of detailed, up-close view that this work necessitated. When I stepped back, though, it was clear that it was good work I was doing. I was giving my plant the kind of room to grow and thrive that it had not had in years, and deconstruction or consideration about our faith accomplishes this same goal, though let’s be honest – it can get messy or even painful along the way.

Secondly, in this process, I unearthed not a small number of worms. Now I know that earthworms are good for the soil and for plants, I totally get it, but each time one wriggled out of a space that I had just cleared, I have to say it kind of shocked me. There is so much living under the surface that we don’t think about. This is true of the ground, of course, but also in the ‘why’ behind what we believe and how we practice our faith. As we’ve said before on this podcast, ‘because someone said so’ is not a good reason for an adult to do much of anything, much less a faith practice that directs our whole life, and it’s a good idea to get behind the curtain of our minds and spirits to understand the history of what is behind the things that we believe and which fuel our lives.

As I continued tackling these grasses, I found that I could lift it up in places, like a kind of a carpet, and expose so much of the stone wall that we had not seen in years. Slowly over time, these grasses just did what they were made to do which is spread, and we had no idea how much of the rock was covered up and hidden away. In our faith lives too, things can grow and spread over our foundation in ways that we are not always aware of. In the Book of Revelation, there is an admonition to the Church of Ephesus, that they had “forgotten the love they had at first.” And this was a church which was commended for its labor, its good works, patience, and perseverance, yet every time I’ve read this scripture, I feel the same chill up my spine. They forgot the love they had at first. I find myself wondering, just how can we know what we have forgotten, especially when so many of our works from an outsider’s point of view seem to be ‘right’? What radical work must we do to be sure that we are in touch with our good foundation, which is not a church or a practice or even the very best of our habits. Our foundation as professed Christians is the person of Jesus and everything He taught and did.

As I worked, I let the music play in my airpods, and I waved to the neighbors who passed by. I did wonder if anyone would ever notice the hard and detailed work that had been done, plus all of the work that still needs doing. As with any project like a garden or a closet, one clean-out does tend to lead to the next one and that is as true for faith as it is for the perennials along my rock wall. Passersby might never see or notice the work that I’m doing, but I will. Over time, we’ve lost colorfully blooming phlox along this wall to the encroachment of the grass, and I miss that kind of color. I’d love nothing more than to bring some of that color back. Doing this digging might not be something that the neighbors notice, it’s true, but this project is not for them. It’s for me. The same is true of any deep faith work we might do. When we dig into our faith, into what we believe and why we believe it, what we do and why we do it, this exploration might not be obvious to those around us – the people in our faith communities, our families, even a priest or a minister, but it is work worth doing for our own growth and flourishing. Even when it is messy, painful and time consuming, faith work is worth it as we make space for healthy and good things to bloom and grow.

There’s so much more to be done in this project outside, and honestly, in the project within me, too. Before I was done for the day, I brought my husband outside to show him some parts of the job that I needed his upper body strength to tackle. We could definitely use a bigger shovel in some parts of this job, and of course he said he would help as we’re in this together. It’s our shared household, after all, and many years ago, we promised to take care of it as the team we are. As I went inside to begin the long task of removing the dirt from underneath my fingernails, showering, and finally getting my lunch, I wish I could say I felt the kind of tired that comes from a job well done. I don’t have that feeling yet, but I’m sure I will once I see everything blooming as it was made to bloom once again. I know I need patience, as it was never my job to make anything grow anyway, but making space for good things to grow is my work. As the Apostle Paul said, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gives (gave) the growth.” Any work we do to make space in which God can work will always be more than worth it. Let’s watch to see what happens when we do.

Thanks so much for being with me today, friend. If you need me, you can find me on Instagram @kerrycampbellwrites, at Substack at kerrycampbellwrites.substack.com, or on my website at kerrycampbell.org. Thanks so much for rating, reviewing, subscribing and most importantly, sharing this podcast with a friend. That makes a real difference in growing our community, so thanks. If you would like to support this podcast financially, there are a couple of ways for you to do that in the show notes, along with some resources related to today’s episode, so do check all of that out, but before we go, let’s pray together.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

God, help us as we make space for you to grow – in us, our dear ones, in our dreams and in our church, too. Help us to trust that while we are at work, you are too, in ways that we might not be able to see quite yet. In the name of Jesus and wrapped in the mantle of Our Mother Mary we pray, amen.

Well, thanks so much for joining me today, friend. Have a good week ahead, and I’ll see you next time.

Show Notes

This week I’m using an overgrown area of my yard as a metaphor for when faith and ministry life need tending, pruning, and uprooting. I pray it’s a blessing for you.

Thanks as always to my friend, Peter Vaughan-Vail, for providing the beautiful harp music you hear in this and every episode.

Here are some resources to help you dig into this week’s topic on your own:

1. Song: ⁠Garden⁠, by Matt Maher

2. Song: ⁠You Have Me⁠, by Gungor

3. Song: ⁠The Earth is Yours⁠, by Gungor

4. Song: ⁠Only Good Will Grow⁠, by Matt Maher

5. Song: ⁠Grow as we Go⁠, by Ben Platt and Sara Bariellas