“This is crazy. I don’t know how I got into this mess, but I’m never doing this again!”

“Do  you need to take a break, mom?” Destiny stuck her head out the door with a concerned expression.

It was kind of laughable, really. but not. This Oregon girl was ankle deep in my first Texas garden…standing on bricks that were sinking in the mud. A week ago I started preparing this soil, thinking it would be a breeze. But it hasn’t been.

First the sod, then the clay, then the standing water…I thought I addressed it all. I dug it out, amended the soil, and even added dry wells for drainage. The sunshine is plenty direct, but the torrents of rain! One downpour before I started and one a week later, FLOODED the plot rendering it a sloppy mess.

And everything else too. Hands, feet, gloves, shoes, hose, tools…everything covered in evil.

I did get my plants in, but how are my tender little roots suppose to thrive in this suffocating slurry? I have no control at this point.

As I was cleaning up (I jumped in the pool) I started thinking about next year, and what on earth I could do differently. The brilliant thought came to me from Heaven to bury big pots in the garden, surround them with ground cover, and plant groupings of veggies and flowers in them, just switching the plants out every year. Like raised beds, but prettier.

I could create the most efficient soil mixture. It could be completely different than the clay. Not just amended, but replaced. Sun and rain will come in turn as usual, but the soil will ensure that the fruit is good…and the garden girl is happy.

“I am not asking that you remove them from the world, but I ask that you guard their hearts from evil.” John 17:15 

Sometimes we don’t get to leave our sticky situations. God wants us out there, among people. Living and loving. Going through the same “Hell and high water” that hits the rest of  mankind. “It rains on the just and the unjust”. We don’t get to duck and cover. We do however, get to sink our roots into the uncommon soil of truth. We get to grow strong, healthy, fruitful lives that testify of the difference He is. We live IN but not OF.

Soils are different.Different enough to make all the difference in the world. Just ask the sower.