What is best...

I weeded the garden today. It was an arduous task. Not simply because of the weeds that have staked a claim in every inch of unoccupied soil after the blessed rains – but because of all of the good plants. Weeds are easy enough to identify and mark as unwanted. It is the “good plants” or the volunteers, as my grandma called them, which try me. A volunteer is a plant that regenerates the following year that wasn’t intentionally sown. They’re quite random, appearing in places most unsuitable. Last year we had a bountiful crop of tomatoes. It was beyond bountiful – it was overabundant. We could not eat, preserve or gift them fast enough. As a result, some of the fruit fell to the ground. The soil was tilled - the seed was scattered – and now there are volunteers throughout the garden.

Hundreds of beautiful tomato plants are growing in the rows of beans, peas, carrots, onions, squash. They had grown so well that I could no longer discern what was planted through the tomatoes. Again they flourished, this time to the detriment of everything else I planted. You see, I had already given half of my garden to planting tomatoes…and with the help of my volunteers, the entire plot had been overtaken. Up until today, I left them there. Because a tomato plant is a good plant. I didn’t have the heart to uproot it. But my garden was meant to be more than tomatoes, even though tomatoes are good. As I carefully weeded around the neat rows and the random tomatoes, I remembered a verse of scripture about choosing what is best. You see, keeping everything good in my garden was choking out what was best. In a row of carrots, carrots are best, no matter how good a tomato might be. When I commit to planting carrots, my aim should be to harvest carrots.

This is not the first time I have encountered this lesson on the farm. At one time we kept both Soay and Icelandic sheep. I loved them both. Both had qualities that not only made them suitable, but endearing to me. I did not want to ask the question “which is best?” because I did not want to choose. Keeping them both cost me dearly. The flocks could run together for the most part of the year, but breeding season presented many challenges, which I could have avoided entirely, had I made a choice. As does happen, one of my best rams escaped his pen, and covered ewes that had not been assigned to him. Not just any ewes. The Grand Champion ewes, which were to have been bred to the Grand Champion ram. Rather than the outstanding lambs we anticipated, we reaped a harvest of crossbred lambs, as the ram was not only unassigned, he was not the same breed as the ewes. The lambs are good lambs, but they are not a faithful representation of either breed. They are not authentic. They can never be the best for the purposes their parents were bred for. The same is true of us when we refuse to choose…we are only a half-hearted servant of either cause.

Making a choice is always difficult, for when we commit to one thing, we must, at the same time, say no to the other options – even if they are good. It is only by honoring a commitment in this way, that we can truly have what is best. So often in life, we are overwhelmed as my garden was, by allowing everything that is good, rather than focusing what is best. Good things clutter up our lives and our calendars – leaving little time or energy for that which is best. We soon find ourselves inadequate to fulfill any of the tasks set before us. Our limited energy and resources are spread so thin, that nothing we do is done well. No one is well-served when we try to have it all or be it all. We become discouraged…all because we lacked the courage to make a choice.

There are many decisions before us in a day. So many questions and opportunities…but we should not be asking ourselves “is this a good thing?” but rather, “is this best?” Is this the best of what is available to me now? Is this the best time, or would it be better to wait? Is this the best place, or should it be elsewhere? Is this the best use of my time, or is there something else I should be giving myself to? Is this the best use of my talent? Is this the best way to say what needs to be said? We must have the courage to commit to what is best, and focus our energies on those things...

With regret, I have pulled and placed my lovely volunteers on the compost pile. Choosing is not easy. Now there are empty spaces between the rows and between the plants. Healthy empty spaces that give them room to grow, seek the sun, extend their roots and draw nourishment from the unobstructed soil around them. Restful places. These empty places will be covered with mulch to protect them, so that nothing takes root there to draw away from or overshadow the young plants.

In order for us to be our best, we need to do the same with the cares and preoccupations of this world. What do you aim to harvest from this life? What have you committed to?

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9-11