In a recent column, Scott Stoner, Executive Director of Living Compass Faith and Wellness Center, reflected on the importance of healthy relationships. He used this quote to explain the obvious, yet easily overlooked, truth about the importance of maintaining healthy relationships: “The grass is greener where we water it.”
Obvious, right? Healthy, vibrant, life-giving relationships require “watering.”
Friendships need to be nourished.
Marriages thrive when they are tended to.
The relationships of our lives are “greener” when we intentionally and consistently water them.
The same holds true in our spiritual lives. God in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit calls us into relationship. This connection is offered through God’s amazing Grace. We don’t earn it. We don’t deserve it. It is freely gifted to us.
But like all relationships, our connection to God requires “watering,” too.
Our Spiritual Watering Practices
The season of Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday, provides an annual opportunity to reflect on our spiritual watering practices. We begin with an honest confession about the unhealthy relationships of our lives — both with people and things. We “repent” and turn to the work of tending to our spiritual lives. We look for ways to “water” our life with God.
The forty days of Lent become a time to remember and return to the truth that the grass of our relationship of God needs watering. And when we tend to it, God does indeed provide the growth.
So how do we “water” our relationship with God?
Stoner suggests three simple ways of “watering” our relationships:
- Expressing appreciation.
- Listening better.
- Playing together.
These same techniques apply to our spiritual lives.
We can choose to express our appreciation for God’s many blessings each day during Lent. We can practice listening more intentionally in times of prayer and meditation. And we can play — YES! Joy even in the midst of Lent!
Fasting, prayer, almsgiving, and self-denial are all appropriate and effective ways to tend to our spiritual life. It is essential to take our faith seriously, but yet to not take ourselves too seriously. This is God’s work…and God’s delight. Lent Madness and Trinity’s upcoming Peep Show are great examples of this! A little bit of play around our faith life offers serious, life-giving benefits, such as staying connected to others, or “watering” those relationships with our openness, presence, and joy.
As we wander through the desert of Lent, may we be thinking of water, always remembering that the grass is greener where we water it.
I encourage you to download our 2022 Lenten Programming Guide-At-A-Glance* to see the many ways you can “water” your relationships at Trinity during Lent. Whether it’s a reflective program just for you, an engaging activity for your family, or a time to connect with the parish as a whole, we hope you’ll draw on Trinity’s programming to deepen your walk in faith through Lent.
— The Rev. AJ Heine, Rector, Trinity Episcopal Church of Staunton
*Print two-sided on 8.5″x11″ paper or pick up a copy at Trinity.
