process

My shoulders are sore and my legs are tired. Today we had a work day at the farm, so I spent a few hours dragging limbs to a pile for burning and then carrying posts on our shoulders over hills to make piles of 50 for fence posts so the cows can start eating the grass up the mountain.
It was nice work. Of course it feels good to be out in the fresh air, and to be getting exercise, but also to see progress, to see something happen, makes it so satisfying. My work here is usually very unlike that. I’m working with people, with children, and hoping to see long-term change. A friend called it a “slow redemption process” that’s being worked out. In Little J., in all the kids, in me, in all of us.
We’re all being pruned, cut back, shifted about, refuse thrown in a pile for disposal, making room for better things to grow and making us more useful and use-able. ‘As iron sharpens iron, so one friend sharpens another.’ Community is so important to our growth processes. ‘Abide in Christ’ and the Father will take care of the changing process, the Father is the gardener who does the pruning and watering and fruit-producing.

Another thing that I’ve been thinking about this week is being child-like, in the good sense. In the sense that Jesus talked about when he invited the kids to come be with him, when he said that whoever welcomes a little child welcomes him. I was reading the section of the Transfiguration in the gospel of Mark . Peter, James, and John get to go on a hike with Jesus. He supernaturally changes and then Elijah and Moses appear. The three of them are having a chat and “they were so frightened” that Peter “didn’t know what to say” (9:6). So instead of just keeping quiet and taking in as much as he could and being silent in wonder, he spoke up and said something foolish. He was uncomfortable with the situation. He was scared, he felt like he needed to say or do something. Kids don’t do that. If there’s something they don’t understand, something amazing, they let themselves be amazed. Or if they have a question, they ask it. Why do we lose those attributes when we get older?