The Compost Pile

~~~ Micah 6:1-4, 6-8 ~~~ Psalm 50 ~~~ Matthew 12: 38-42 ~~~

"...You have been told, O man, what is good,
and what the LORD requires of you:
Only to do the right and to love goodness,
and to walk humbly with your God."

If you are regular reader of this blog you realize that I wrote about

this verse from Micah just a couple days ago.

I did not look ahead at the readings, by the way.

"...do the right and to love goodness..."

It takes constant vigilance to do right in all circumstances.

It takes reaching down into your gut to have the

stamina to do the right thing.

You must reach deep inside to bypass the fresh "poop" of life.

Excuse me if I am too graphic.

In the compost pile of life what appears to be buried and forgotten

is where we must nourish our souls. It takes time for the stuff on

top to yield the richness of decomposition. It takes patience to wait,

but it takes greater courage to shovel it aside.

Going deeper is how we learn to walk humbly with God.

I am still a compost digger in training.

At times my shovel seems too small...too heavy...

there is too much on top.

I sometimes wonder if it is all worth it and then I see

what life there is far below the surface.

Far below where the earth worms are busy at work

tending the new rich dirt.

I struggle with the times when it is not easy to see what is good.

I want what is good to be victorious over all that is less than good.

But would that be life? Maybe not.

We ask God for signs, when in reality he gives us signs everyday.

God just does not always give us the signs we can see

or the signs we want.

Some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus,
"Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you."

You cannot see what is in the bottom of the compost pile

 unless you stir it up.

You cannot see unless you dig into the bottom.

 Jonah had to be swallowed up and plunged deep inside...

Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights

Much like the bottom of the compost pile.

Our eyes are so blind to the signs;

we fool ourselves into believing they do not exist.

Yes, there is something greater than Jonah or Solomon here.

It is the grace we are given to do right, love goodness above all,

and to keep walking humbly with God.

We must keep walking humbly with God even when he leads us

to the compost pile, hands us the shovel and says,

'Start digging, my beloved'.

Life at the compost pile can be messy and yes, even stinky. 

In the end Jonah came out of the belly a changed man,

just as we can return from the compost pile a changed believer.

The richness is below the surface.