Tomatoes, Chips, and the Holy Spirit

I called my mom to let her know that I had started the project, but after the allotted amount of days, there was nothing to show for it, I had broken it. She assured me that I hadn't done anything wrong. She said that since I had followed the directions on the box exactly, that it wasn't anything I had done. It was just that sometimes things like this don't work out. Perhaps the seeds had been bad. "Well, I didn't follow the directions exactly on the box," I confessed. There was a sigh on the other end of the phone. Oh.

Over Spring Break, I had told her that I had planned to start a pot garden on the balcony of my apartment. After clarifying that the word "pot" was in reference to the containers within which I would grow the desired vegetables (green peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes), we proceeded to the store to check out the garden supplies and to see what we could see by way of pots. We compared pots, read plant food labels, and dreamed about my little balcony farm before we stumbled upon something new and exciting. Upside down tomato-growing kits. What?! What a clever idea! You water from the top! How cute! Wouldn't that be fun?! One for you and one for me! Basket, cashier, money, done.

The directions are written in multiple languages. There are pictures on the box to illustrate most steps of the instructions. And still, I fudged a little. The packet of seeds tore easily enough, but the seeds were so teeny, tiny that my chubby fingers had trouble gathering just the "three per hole" as directed for complete success. I ended up dumping the seeds in my hand and then scattering them as best I could into the three holes. This, apparently, had been my tomato plant demise, because after the 7-10 days of waiting for those little seeds to germinate, I had nothing in my green planter bucket but soil. It was a sad day.

* * *

After showing a friend of mine some class pictures from previous years, she looked up at me and asked if I could pinpoint the time that I started gaining weight. I snapped to attention. I looked at her in disbelief. I calculated my words, knowing defensiveness would point to her being correct in her observation that in recent years, I had gained weight. But, she was right. I have gained weight. And, so, I told her that I didn't know, took my pictures, and hit my knees in prayer. Conviction lead me to look at my diet. And, to own up to the fact that I have been abusing food since I was in college.

Gluttony is a sin, and I am a gluttonous sinner. Eating has become the one thing I can control. And, in that idea, I have lost complete control. Eating is not for nutritional value anymore. It is for emotional release. It is a reward when I have had a good day. It is sympathy when I have had a bad day. It is the thing I come home to every night because there is nothing else to come home to. It is what to do when there is nothing else to do. It makes me full when I feel empty. It has consumed more time, money, and effort in my life than I care to admit. Although, who am I kidding? The pudgy cheeks, muffin top, and bigger clothes sizes say more than I have ever dreamed of saying.

My first encounter with the Holy Spirit was through a Bible study of the Fruit of the Spirit. I had read the passage in Galatians countless times but had never really understood it until this Bible study. After the study was over, I understood the fruit of the Spirit to be gifts, given by God, to enable us to act as He has commanded us to. But, I also understood that we would need the indwelling, supernatural power of the Holy Spirit to pull off this fruit; that they were not things we could do on our own. Not for any length of time, anyway. I believe that the Holy Spirit is such that He enables me to do things that I would never be able to do without Him. He can make me into something that I cannot make on my own. He is God's battery, if you will, inside each of us who have chosen Christ. Like the batteries of a flashlight, the Holy Spirit makes us work.

* * *

I was sitting outside in my rocking chair, listening to worship music and enjoying the Springtime weather. As I settled my gaze on the "broken" green, upside down tomato bucket, my eye caught something that hadn't been there the day before. I grabbed the bucket and shed my sunglasses. There, in the bucket, were two teeny, tiny shoots of a growing tomato plant. They were less than an inch tall. But, they had tiny leaves and enormous potential to be full-blown, tomato-producing plants. I was so excited! I hadn't killed them! They had grown, just as the directions said they would, even with my indifference to following the directions exactly. They were little bitty, now. But, they would grow. I would water them and leave them in the sunlight, and they would grow. And, when it was time, they would produce tomatoes! Ripe, red, juicy tomatoes! Just like the directions said. Because that is what they were designed to do!

* * *

I read about this lady who only ate the bent-over tortilla chips out of the basket at restaurants. Those were the ones she liked best. The ones that were the more complete triangle were too wide to fit in her mouth comfortably with the dollop of salsa on top. So, she only ate the bent -over chips. Sometimes, the basket was overflowing with bent-over chips. She ate them all. Sometimes, there weren't any bent-over chips in the basket at all. She ate none. She only ate the bent-over tortilla chips. I tend to lean toward the bent-over chips, myself. However, it has never occurred to me to only eat those. There is a whole basket full. Why just eat the bent-over chips? But, today, I tried something different. I prayed before the meal - out in my car before anyone else showed up to meet me. I asked for the Holy Spirit to help me; to sustain me; to guide me; and by all means, to stop me. There were five bent-over chips in the basket. I ate only those. Five chips. Lest you miss the magnitude of this sight, let me tell you that I have polished off a whole basket by myself more than once. But, today, I ate five chips. I made other positive adjustments to my normal eating habits during this meal; the most noteworthy - those five chips.

Baby steps. The Holy Spirt seeps in through any crack we allow Him. The tiniest amount of control we relinquish to Him is used for His glory and contains enormous potential for a life lived relying solely on His Spirit. Like those tomato shoots, the Holy Spirit may be seen in teeny, tiny ways in my life, right now, but He will grow. If I continue to pray and study in the Scriptures, and daily submit my life to Him, His Spirit will grow within me. And, when it is time, my life will produce the fruit of the Spirit, gifts from God, allowed to be used through me to glorify Him. Just like His Word commands. Because that is what I have been designed to do.


"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." Galatians 5:22