Rich

I couldn’t delay another day. I’ve been hoping Don would have time to help me make the change with the compost heap, but he’s away and the bin we’ve been filling is full to overflowing. So the rigid plastic framework, which comes in layers and is built up like a lego tower, needed to be carefully dismantled, without disturbing any of the rotting garbage thrown together into a smelly heap.

That bit is tricky enough. Worse than that, though, the other heap, which has been rotting away happily for six months or so, covered by a double layer of thick black polythene and inhabited by a community of slimy critters – slugs, snails and red worms I can’t even bear to look at - needed to be uncovered (by far the worst part of this, in case the polythene suddenly pings and throws some legless wonder onto my face). Eyes averted, my gloved hands lifted one heavy stone after the other from the outer edges of the plastic and then flung it back, like flinging open a bed to air. Snails and their pals who thought they’d found a neat place to sleep through winter were exposed to the elements. Hah! Gotcha!

A few barrow loads into the garden, where I lightly dug them in, hoping their richness might enhance whatever we decide to plant there next year, and then I made the switch, rebuilding the plastic layers ready to receive another half-year’s worth of kitchen and garden waste, and putting to bed the detritus humped like a hill. Hopefully bugs and worms and whatnot will now get to work and transform that hill into a small mound of rich manure for next spring.

Sometimes what we consider wasted moments, wasted energy, wasted time and trouble, or just plain bad experiences, are full of a richness we don’t appreciate. Sometimes as the ‘stuff’ that we all deal with goes into our minds, hearts, and lives, day by day, it gets broken down and turned into something which can enhance someone else’s life at some point in the future. 

The Bible challenges us to use painful times in our lives to help others who are experiencing similar pain. I’ve been helped by others who have done this, and I hope that on the odd occasion I’ve been able to help someone. 

Otherwise, these experiences are, literally, just a waste.

May you have only good experiences today, but if there are one or two horrible or apparently wasted moments, let the Lord transform them into rich fertiliser for someone else.