Uncontrollable Growth

Faith is like planting a seed. Sometimes we wish faith was more like playing a song, or building a birdhouse, or even baking a cake. Something where we have a clear idea of the steps involved and a great deal of control over the final outcome of our efforts. But planting a seed isn't like that. Yes, if we don't water it, or give it enough sunlight, or make sure we remove all the weeds, then it will wither and die. But there's no exact formula to follow, no musical score, no blueprint, no recipe. It's not obvious that if we had given the plant an extra four ounces of water it would have grown even better, or if there was an exact number of photons the plant should have taken to be the best plant that it could be. We can through a lot of trial and error develop an intuitive sense for how much is too much or too little when it comes to water and sunlight and even soil composition, but each plant is going to be slightly different. And in any case we don't really get to control what kind of fruit will come as the result of our labors. There are things we could do to make sure pests don't eat the fruit that starts growing. We can prune some of the fruit so that the remainder grows bigger and fuller. But there's no way to guarantee that our apple tree grows exactly one hundred apples, or that each apple is exactly two inches in diameter. When we go forth with faith, we don't always get to control how the world around us will react to our efforts. We may have a righteous desire, and pray for it with a sincere heart, and labor with all of our might to see it realized, but sometimes we don't attain our desires at all, or they don't turn out the way we hoped. Was our faith in vain? If we try to grow an apple tree and we're only able to harvest a couple of apples, or most of them are a little too scrawny, or too sour, or they taste ok but they're an ugly brown color, does that take away the tree that we grew? Does it mean all of our hard work and effort was in vain? I testify that God sees our good works and He delights as much in our humble little tree with its lumpy fruit as He does in the mightiest tree in the forest. We don't get to control the outcome of our faith, and we may look at the fruits of our labors with discouragement when they don't turn out the way we hoped, but better to feast on lumpy, slightly sour apples then to go hungry because we're afraid to ever plant the seed.