Planting and impatience

I love planting my flower garden, and I love planting a vegetable garden. I hate to tend a garden and harvest it, but I sure love to enjoy the harvest. This leads me to have flowers which grow every year without much help, and without much care to keep them alive. I love zinnias, daisies, irises, touch-me-nots, day lilies, morning glories... I have some really beautiful flowers which require little or no work.

When I plant my seeds, I am so impatient for the result-- the harvest. It is the same when I plant a seed for Christ. I was just sitting here thinking about how wonderful it would be to see the seeds I have planted in some of my friends grow into a beautiful harvest. I can only sit and wait and if tending needs to be done, do what I can. I am so desperately impatient to see my friends become Christians. I can only sit and pray that the harvest will be plentiful. I remember a time when I got to enjoy the harvest of a seed I helped plant (I am not the only one out there throwing seeds). A lady I worked with was baptized a while back and she came to me so proud of what Jesus had done for her. I broke down and cried with her. I want to experience this more!

Like in my gardens at home, all I can do is plant the seeds, and faithfully do what tending needs to be done and the Lord creates the harvest. I seem to choose the easy path of planting the seeds (not only in my garden) of Christianity too. I have never been out of my comfort zone really. I stick with what I know. What I mean is I have never gone to another country or culture, I have never risked my life to tell someone the good news, I have never had to choose between loved ones and my faith, I have never been imprisoned or tortured for my faith... There are believers, brothers and sisters out their going through these things right now for their faith in Jesus. I get a newsletter every month from Franklin Graham's Samaritan's Purse ministry and it always reports on the persecuted church. I read these things and I grieve with my "family" over their trials. I am so thankful for where I am and the country we live in. I often feel guilty that I have it so easy here. I am obviously super weak, for God promises not to give us more than we can bear. Oh, how strong these people must be and how they must be so faithful to rely on the strength of Jesus to get them through their persecution. What if His plan for me included these things. I know that God is faithful to keep His promises. What would I do if I got the call to go out of my comfort zone?