Katy and I discovered a few months ago that our wonderful St. Augustine grass at home was dying. We had significant brown patches in the lawn and could not understand why. After all, while the summer was hot and dry, the lawn was being watered regularly. We were afraid a fungus may have developed in the lawn as this is a common problem in St. Augustine grass.
Some investigation online, in the yard, and around the house, helped me discover the problem. I messed up when I changed the settings on the irrigation system late in the Spring. We read some information about watering that suggested we run our irrigation stations intermittently each time, five minutes a station with three rotations, each day we water so each area of the lawn would have an opportunity to soak up the water it received. I had adjusted our system to water in this manner but a slight error in my entries in the electronic system created a situation where the stations only cycled through once. The lawn was getting only five minutes of water instead of fifteen whenever the sprinklers ran. Thus, it had begun to dry up.
Our spiritual practices, or what Wesley and others traditionally called the means of grace, are like the water for our lives as disciples. They are methods, we Methodists might say, which water our souls and nourish us regularly so that we are strengthened in our lives as followers of Jesus. These means included acts of piety, worship, prayer, Holy Communion, etc., and acts of mercy, those acts we do out of compassion and our hunger and thirst for justice. They are called means of grace because we know God’s grace is offered to us when we do these things. They are the ordinary means of grace where we can expect to encounter God’s nourishing, strengthening love. They are the water for our lives of following Jesus. They help us continue to grow.
There are extraordinary moments of grace, which are like rain showers that often pop up unexpectedly. But these ordinary means are always available to us to form us in God’s love so we produce the fruit of the Spirit. They are the irrigation system that waters our lives regularly. Take advantage of these with discipline and our lives will grow strong. But if our lives are underwatered, we will grow frail, brown, and full of weeds.
The General Rule of Discipleship for United Methodist churches is “To witness to Jesus Christ in the world and to obey his teachings through acts of compassion, justice, worship and devotion under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.” It summarizes what it is to love God and neighbor. It summarizes the acts of piety and acts of mercy that are the means of grace. It is a tool we can use to help us make sure we are turning on the water for our lives with the full expectation that we will encounter the life-giving Holy Spirit when we do. Have we watered our lawns lately?
Grace and peace,
Rev. J.D. Allen
Senior Pastor
Comments are closed.