Bearing Good Fruit: Morning Watch Mondays

Morning Watch Mondays

Welcome back to our blog series, written by Matt Sloan, Camp’s Chaplain and Shoulder Season Events Director. These “Morning Watch Mondays” will be posted twice a month, inviting a moment of reflection the same way our daily Morning Watch times do during the summer.

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Here's what the F.A.R.M. (which stands for Food, Animals, Repurposing, & Manpower) currently looks like in March - a lot of preparation still to go before campers arrive this summer!

The F.A.R.M. at Falling Creek is an amazing place, and as you can see in the pictures we are well on our way in preparing it for this growing season! We can’t wait for our campers to get here to help us grow the crops and take care of the animals!

My grandparents (Nana and Papa) knew how to grow a garden well. Growing up I would love to slowly crawl through the rows of fruits and vegetables like I was on an Easter egg hunt, carefully checking under each oversized prickly leaf for cucumbers or squash to appear. I would stroll down the rows of corn hoping there would be an ear or two ready to be picked, or study the grape vines winding between fence posts wondering how they found their way.

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We began preparing the land and getting a head-start on the raised beds at the F.A.R.M. early this spring.

When I wanted to start my own garden I called Papa to ask him what I should do, expecting it to be a fairly quick process where you drop some seeds into the ground, and voila…veggies! I was way off. He talked to me about turning the soil months beforehand so that the nutrients in the soil could be activated, and how to mix fertilizers that would benefit growth even before you planted a thing. He talked to me about checking the pH levels in the soil to make sure it had the correct amounts of acid that would promote growth. He talked to me about which seeds needed to be planted in mounded soil, and which ones needed level soil. WAIT A SECOND, I wasn’t planning on doing all of this work before I even planted a seed! This farming thing was going to be a lot harder than I thought!

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Rucker has been trying to help prepare by planting tennis balls, in the hopes that they'll become tennis ball trees by summertime...

Papa taught me that in order to grow healthy crops you must pay careful attention to the condition of the soil underground. Good soil is essential to grow good crops.

Did you know that our lives work the exact same way? If we want our lives to produce good “crops” such as love, joy, peace, etc…, we must pay careful attention to what is feeding the roots of our hearts.

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Campers picking tomatoes last summer and enjoying the "fruits" of their labor.

In Luke 6:43-45, Jesus was talking with his friends about this very thing. They were asking him questions about the right way to live life to please God, and he talked to them about their hearts. He said, “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”

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We must pay attention to the condition of our hearts if we want our lives to have good fruit. Jesus knows that He designed you and me to have hearts that are planted in the soil of His irrationally good love, His unconditional mercy, and His forgiveness by grace through faith. If we trust anyone or anything else to be able to produce good in our lives, including ourselves, it would be impossible to bear good fruit! It’s tough to think about the amount of things I hope will fill my heart but never do.

In John 15 Jesus says, “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. NO branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me…Apart from me you can do nothing.”

Question

What kind of fruit do you notice grows in your life, both from within you and around you? Do you find it difficult to trust that God is good soil to plant your heart in? Why or why not?

Thought

The Good News is that God is good and He made you to belong to Him. His entire being is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control. He is full of compassion and mercy, overflowing with love. That sounds like the kind of soil our hearts would thrive in! I dare you to talk to Him about it and ask for help to trust Him!