Giving Voice: Life Veggies

Corn and turnips are not planted together. Not in the same field, not in the same row, not even at the same time of year.

In the same way, different things that are going on in our lives are like different plants, and your "life veggies" will rarely look the same as mine. They probably taste quite different, too.

Corn is a big deal veggie in Kentucky. Corn is usually planted around here in April or May. It grows for a few months, then the garden-lovers pluck the ears off and voila, corn! Turnips, however, are not that big of a deal, and they are typically planted in June or July. To harvest those, the nice gardener people pull the purple and white goodies out of the soil by hand. Carefully.

Turnips and corn aren't tended in the same way, don't grow the same speed, and most certainly don't have the same taste! In the same way, "life veggies" do not grow the same way, need the same tending, get harvested at the same time, and do not taste the same. Maybe for your "life veggies," right now, you are learning about God's perfect peace and cultivating that in your heart. At the same time, your good friend is focused more on trusting God's solutions for a particular circumstance. Your understanding of God's perfect peace likely will take years to mature, and once it reaches a mature stage, it will produce a crop all the time, the way full-grown oak trees produce acorns every year. Your friend may quickly reach that place of trusting God in a particular circumstance, and not need years of growth and cultivation. Their "life veggies" would certainly look different than yours, and benefit different areas of life, bringing unique favors that taste perfect in the right situations.

Being different doesn't mean either of us is wrong in what veggies we cultivate. Also, no "veggie" is superior to another. All are food, all are life-giving. These different "veggies" show us that God knows what He is doing in each of us, in each family, and in each community, and we should not try to make  people around us plant and cultivate the exact same things we are, at the same time.

In addition, we don't want to assume that just because God brought someone else through a process in one way, we will go that exact same way. However, if we have insight into that thing the other person is trying to grow, we can encourage and help them through the process.

So, what are your "life veggies" right now, and how are they being cultivated?