Greg's Weekly Word: "grassroots"
Sadly, this is not a picture of my lawn. I've spend hundreds of dollars over the past couple of years on grass seed, but I might as well have made confetti from dollar bills and tried to get them to grow! Because even when the seed would begin to sprout, if it ever got too dry or too much water or if we walked on it too much or if grubs got in it, it died. It didn't have a strong enough root system to withstand and recover from the stressors and hardship put upon it.
And the scriptures often compare people to grass.
6 A voice says, “Cry out!”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All people are grass,
their constancy is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades,
when the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades;
but the word of our God will stand forever.
(Isaiah 40)
15 As for mortals, their days are like grass;
they flourish like a flower of the field;
16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more.
17 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting.
(Psalm 103)
And if God's people are anything like my lawn, the prophet and the psalmist are certainly right about how quickly we wither - with both our mortality and our fidelity. And yet the promises and purposes of God are eternal. God's steadfast love is from everlasting to everlasting.
That, in itself, is good news. And to quote Billy Mays...
As we pursue God's purposes for us as a people and as a church, it will be a grassroots effort. The word was first used near the very beginning of the 20th century to refer to the common people, but also to the basic level or part of a whole. And we at Augusta Heights are ordinary, common people - working "from the ground up," giving whatever we can, however we can, to move toward the future God is leading us into. So it will take all of us to realize this vision for our congregation and our missions and ministries, and to renew our church facilities.
But, because we are - at our most basic level - striving to be faithful to the people and church Christ calls us to be, I am confident that we can face any stressors or hardships that may arise. So even as we talk of property and renovations and fundraising, let us always stay rooted in God's steadfast, everlasting love, and share that love with others. If we do, I believe we will find God's promises fulfilled, and abundant life growing and blossoming all around us!
- GJD