I’m probably one of the only Americans who despised being a homeowner. There were a few reasons I liked apartment living better, but the major source of my disdain stemmed from a homeowner's marriage to incessant yard work. If there was one thing that reminded me of the curse, it was the entropy to which my yard would succumb in a single week. Yard work just seems like a monotonous task that one does solely for looks, with little to no return, and being left only with the promise that you’ll have to rinse and repeat in about a week. It just seems like a vacuous endeavor. It's utterly monotonous. While our move to Romania has significantly diminished the size of the yard for which I’m responsible, this yardwork has come with its own set of challenges. I now have to lug heavy machinery up steep embankments. I have to take care no to run over the electric mower’s cord (I didn't even know electric mowers existed before moving to Romania). I hate it. Yard work is a small thing, I know (unless you are one of our neighbors who wishes it would be a bigger thing for us), but it’s something I despise.
But in my weak attempt to maintain a small yard here in Romania, I think I have stumbled onto an interesting cultural observation. For the past year Catalina and I have heard Romanians (especially the older ones) rave about how natural their food is. When we get cherries, radishes, or grapes from our friends and neighbors, they are sure to proudly tell us how these things are good because they don’t use anything artificial. That was all relatively meaningless to me. I’ve done enough damage to my body in the first 20 years of my life that I’m not too hopeful of making up for lost time. But I have nothing against eating all-natural stuff, so I just nod and thank them for the food, appreciative of their interaction and friendship. Plus, at least the food may be healthier for my kids. I can give them a jump start in life. Overall, however, the value of “all-natural” hasn’t really impacted me too much…until I went to do some yard work.
I walked into our local store a few weeks ago to buy some items, one of which was weed killer for the many weeds that have popped up in our walkway and driveway. The small store didn’t have any weed killer, so a few days later, I tried a bigger store. It also didn’t have any. After a few more attempts, I realized that the only plant products I could find were life-giving, all-natural fertilizers. But that just didn’t seem right. There had to be a place to buy dangerous, murderous, synthetic, weed-killing chemicals. I held up hope for the huge hardware store in Brasov. Think Home Depot – same colors, same items, and just as big. It has everything. But I'll bet you can guess one thing it doesn't have... it doesn’t have weed killer. The Romanians have taken this all-natural value too far! What am I supposed to do? Pluck the weeds by hand?
While I hope this story gives you some insight into how Romanian culture is a little different than American culture, I also feel it provides a good analogy for this past month. We have found ourselves in several situations where “weeds” have grown. We have been criticized by some neighbors for the kinds of people we assist, we have been in the middle of a different spat several of our neighbors had, and we had our credit card stolen by an individual and used for thousands of dollar’s worth of purchases. Especially in regard to this last situation, we’ve had to ask how to handle the metaphorical weeds.
For as much as I hate yard work, and for as much as I just want to scorch anything that looks like a weed, I think the Romanian way is the right way here. In fact, I think Jesus advocates the Romanian way in Matthew 13. Jesus talks about the different types of ground the “seed” of the gospel message can fall on, and what that growth process looks like. He goes on to discuss how even after it looks like there is a good crop of wheat growing, there are still weeds (tares) which are practically indistinguishable from the wheat. Christ’s solution is to not worry about the weeds. They will be taken care of. We don’t need to destroy whole swaths of crop to remove the weeds. Rather, we must tend to the crop and allow the weeds to be dealt with at harvest time.
What a freeing thing to tell someone who hates yardwork. I’ll be honest with you, I hate looking at these “weeds” that are growing. I hate brushing up against their thorns and being stung. I hate knowing that the weeds get to suck life out of the crop around them. But then again, I’m no green-thumb. I can’t tell a wheat from a tare. But my master can. My job is to continue sowing the seed and tending the crop. I need to keep dumping that good old Romanian, all-natural fertilizer out and pray that I’ve mistakenly identified some of these weeds. God’s policy for me is not scorched-earth, but graced-earth. I’m not always sure how that plays out, but I can think of lots of ways it doesn’t play out – usually the ways towards which I am most naturally inclined to pursue. Please pray with us that God would give us patience and love to administer his grace to others. Pray that he gives us wisdom as we try to both proclaim and live the gospel. Please pray that the seed would fall on good ground, and that God would grow and strengthen his church.
I walked into our local store a few weeks ago to buy some items, one of which was weed killer for the many weeds that have popped up in our walkway and driveway. The small store didn’t have any weed killer, so a few days later, I tried a bigger store. It also didn’t have any. After a few more attempts, I realized that the only plant products I could find were life-giving, all-natural fertilizers. But that just didn’t seem right. There had to be a place to buy dangerous, murderous, synthetic, weed-killing chemicals. I held up hope for the huge hardware store in Brasov. Think Home Depot – same colors, same items, and just as big. It has everything. But I'll bet you can guess one thing it doesn't have... it doesn’t have weed killer. The Romanians have taken this all-natural value too far! What am I supposed to do? Pluck the weeds by hand?
While I hope this story gives you some insight into how Romanian culture is a little different than American culture, I also feel it provides a good analogy for this past month. We have found ourselves in several situations where “weeds” have grown. We have been criticized by some neighbors for the kinds of people we assist, we have been in the middle of a different spat several of our neighbors had, and we had our credit card stolen by an individual and used for thousands of dollar’s worth of purchases. Especially in regard to this last situation, we’ve had to ask how to handle the metaphorical weeds.
For as much as I hate yard work, and for as much as I just want to scorch anything that looks like a weed, I think the Romanian way is the right way here. In fact, I think Jesus advocates the Romanian way in Matthew 13. Jesus talks about the different types of ground the “seed” of the gospel message can fall on, and what that growth process looks like. He goes on to discuss how even after it looks like there is a good crop of wheat growing, there are still weeds (tares) which are practically indistinguishable from the wheat. Christ’s solution is to not worry about the weeds. They will be taken care of. We don’t need to destroy whole swaths of crop to remove the weeds. Rather, we must tend to the crop and allow the weeds to be dealt with at harvest time.
What a freeing thing to tell someone who hates yardwork. I’ll be honest with you, I hate looking at these “weeds” that are growing. I hate brushing up against their thorns and being stung. I hate knowing that the weeds get to suck life out of the crop around them. But then again, I’m no green-thumb. I can’t tell a wheat from a tare. But my master can. My job is to continue sowing the seed and tending the crop. I need to keep dumping that good old Romanian, all-natural fertilizer out and pray that I’ve mistakenly identified some of these weeds. God’s policy for me is not scorched-earth, but graced-earth. I’m not always sure how that plays out, but I can think of lots of ways it doesn’t play out – usually the ways towards which I am most naturally inclined to pursue. Please pray with us that God would give us patience and love to administer his grace to others. Pray that he gives us wisdom as we try to both proclaim and live the gospel. Please pray that the seed would fall on good ground, and that God would grow and strengthen his church.
RSS Feed