This is my inaugural blog, so please be patient with the length and I promise to be brief in upcoming days.

Playing catch is one of the “heaven on earth” experiences that a person can enjoy, because simultaneously you can enjoy God’s favorite sport of baseball, you can experiment with different pitches, you can take great delight in the popping sound the ball makes when you catch the ball in your glove, and you can have meaningful conversation that is both meaningful and humorous.

Like any person reared in the South, I value time spent on the front porch thinking about life and I have a deep hunger and preference for fried foods.

Hence, this blog will be an opportunity to play catch back and forth with some thoughts that are not reactive but are battered and coated with truth and time and experience. Do you hear and smell the bacon grease popping already? That means something deep fried and tasty is coming shortly. Put down your broccoli and cheese and let’s get ready to eat something together that is so good you will want to hit someone!

In recent years I have set annual goals and some of the goals are to accomplish some things I have never done before. One of my personal goals this year was to plant a vegetable garden. Way back in my past I definitely had experience in pulling weeds out of my grandmother’s garden or I had experience with the thumb-numbing task of shelling bushels of beans or I had experience in stealing watermelons out of someone else’s garden or I had experience in the thrilling role of shooting rabbits to keep them out of a elderly couple’s garden. But I never had the experience of my own garden.

This past April, Steve and Polly Wilson, who are garden gurus, gave me their insight and then Steve came to my house and we tilled up a portion of backyard. He showed me how to get the ground ready for planting and then he gave me the green light to put plants or seeds in the ground. I went to Ben’s Nursery and they were very helpful with plant choices and their corresponding care. So I planted various tomatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers, onions, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, and cantaloupes.

Since late April, I have been on a mission each day to spend time in my garden. I pulled numerous weeds. I have watered the plants. After seeing evidence that rabbits were eating my plants, I put up a fence instead of buying a gun and using my skills from earlier years. I have done many things to nurture my garden, even to the point where I have worn a path around the fence as I have walked each day to inspect the various plants. Sometimes my wife Dawn thinks I like the garden more than I like her, but I remind her that is not true and I only planted things that she wanted to eat. I am just trying to speak a love language to her!

In recent weeks we have harvested way more food than we can eat and there is more still growing. We have resorted to giving some of the food to neighbors and friends, so please let me know if you want some home-grown vegetables. More importantly, the process of gardening has led me to reflect and think on a number of scripture passages. For example, Jesus says in Mark 4:26-29, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain, first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

Each day as I work my garden God reminds me I have a part to play in the process but ultimately God determines the growth and harvest. Every morning I go outside and see that God has worked again in the garden since I last saw it the evening before. I do not know how God does it but He does, and I am thrilled that I get to be a small part in the process. And relationships are very similar to my garden. The growth of a relationship is a process and I have a part to play in the process, but ultimately, God has to make it grow.

I have yielded to the truth that I personally cannot make anyone grow nor can I make anyone follow Christ. I have yielded to the truth that my success in life is not determined by the quantity of the harvest, but did I harvest the ones God gave me. Consequently, each day I ask God to show me where He is working; that is, I look for opportunities where God is stirring the mind and heart of another person. I look for opportunities that can only be explained by God’s activity. I look for opportunities that will make an impact for eternity. I look for heaven on earth.

Let’s play catch. It’s your turn to throw now.