The Deacon's Bench - July, 2009

Our garden has been growing for over a month now. It amazes me how fast weeds spring up out there. Every day I go out there with the hoe, hack the place up and then go in close to the stems by hand to get those nasty little horrors that are too close for the hoe to get.

It’s tedious work, as many of you well know, but I happen to like it, because in the end we get to harvest beautiful flowers and tasty veggies. And there’s nothing quite like taking something fresh from your garden either to brighten up the house or to eat. God makes the plants grow – my job is just to see that they grow into the best plants they can be.

Our lives are a bit like that, too. God made me, and it’s just my job to grow into the best person I can be. It can be tedious work sometimes, keeping the weeds of evil out of our gardens of our souls. Some of them come out fairly easily with the hoe of prayer. For example, we can choose to acquire a good habit to replace one that’s perhaps not so good, like putting a bible or a magazine like Liguorian or Catholic Digest where the beer or potato chips are. Yes, you can really put magazines in the refrigerator. Just keep them away from the wet and smelly stuff.

Sometimes you’ll take out all three items and enjoy them together, maybe sometimes you’ll decide you just need the reading material, and maybe other times it’ll be just the chips and beer. No matter what, you’ll have seen the magazine and have been reminded of the God who loves you, and that’s the real point. Becoming a bit more mindful of God is a good first step in getting the hoeing done.

Close-in weeds are another story. Sometimes it’s a good idea to get some help from someone whose eyesight is better or who perhaps has more patience than we do. It can help prevent ripping out the good plant along with the bad.

It’s like that in ditching a bad habit, too. On our own, we can get discouraged or maybe not even see what really has to change. Sharing with someone we love our new mindfulness of God and our choice to drop a bad habit or two can be a pretty smart move. No need to do damage to what’s really good about ourselves in the process of getting rid of those close-in weeds and becoming the best persons we can be.

Deacon Tim’s Emergency Carrot Recipe #82A

The trick to removing that “newly exhumed” taste carrots have is to cut them into slices and parboil them. Takes the edge off the taste and people’s opinion of carrots.

Try this: 8 carrots, one onion, 1 tbsp. garlic, olive oil, 1 tsp. herbs de Provence. Sauté the first three in the oil. Parboil carrot slices and add as things are sauté-ing. If you’re cooking for me, add a can of mushroom soup, otherwise don’t. It’s pretty good either way!