It appears that spring is emerging. When I retrieved my car, Blueberry, from the body shop yesterday, there was a thick coating of yellow dust settled all over it. I had to use that delightful little spray/windshield wiper contraption to see the road clearly.

But it’s not just pollen that’s come. Not just tulips lining the sidewalk by one of my favorite study spots, and not just the sudden urge to eat daily bananas (spring makes me want fruit and Easter-colored things!). March reminds me of Isaiah 43:19, “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” The question: What’s He doing? 

There’s this song by Thomas Austin called called “Garden City,” and I love it. Not only is it catchy and lovely sounding, but the meaning is incredibly comforting for someone who is starting her career and actively working not to despise small beginnings. 

In the song, Tom talks about the desire to do something great while not wanting to define your success by the world’s definition of success. He sings, “And I don’t want to waste my life / But for every single second that goes by / It seems like everyone but me / Is doing better, making more, and going further.” 

This is a hard place to be. It’s so easy to compare or to get wrapped up in where you want to be, especially if you’re not there. 

The conclusion to which Tom eventually comes in his soft, comforting voice? We are not measured by our accomplishments. Instead, we’re known by the King who created us and loves us and knows us. The God who is growing a garden city in our hearts. He’s sanctifying us and changing us and molding us after His own image. Ahhh. So good. 

Listen to the song. And then keep reading.  

Right now I’m reading a lot of books, including Garden City by John Mark Comer and Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper. The two overlap a lot more than I expected when I picked them out, and so I’ve been percolating on the themes. 

In Garden City (the book version!) Comer focuses on how what we do shapes who we are. He argues that while our identity is first and foremost in Christ, the work we perform also influences this, leading to an important question: how is our work glorifying God? How are we adding weight to who God is in the way we image Him before the watching world? 

 While the next book doesn’t share the title of the aforementioned song, it does have a phrase in common. Don’t Waste Your Life argues that Christ crucified is the “blazing center of the glory of God” (Piper). We ought to boast in the cross, and all joy we experience flows from our exultation in the cross of Jesus Christ. According to Piper, living in this way is the only way we can get to the end of our lives and feel confident we have not wasted the time we’ve been given. 

 A couple of Sundays ago, my pastor preached about the Parable of the Sower from Mark 4. A point of application he presented was that the Sower sowing the word does not know which seeds will fall on rocky ground and which will fall on good soil. But he is not commanded to know. He is commanded to throw seeds like crazy, and then leave the results of which ones sprout up to the Lord. 

 If I don’t want to waste my life, I know the point isn’t striving for “success,” or working solely to make my dreams come true. The way to make the most of the time I have been given is to live for Christ, out of the mystery and wonder and indescribable gift of the cross. If I have been given such a wonderful gift, can I help but tell everyone? Can I help but scatter the seeds of the word with every step that I take? So then, it is my responsibility to do this through my daily life, which includes my work. 

 “Garden City” (the song) says, “But someday I’ll move into a city / Where the streets aren’t made of gold, they’re growing green.” With this little contrast, Tom brings to mind the city I most want to see–heaven. I cannot wait to go there and see the harvest of the seeds that have fallen on good soil because God’s people did not hesitate to use their very lives to fling seeds this way and that. So I encourage you–use your life to sow the seeds. Plant that Garden City. Add weight to God’s presence on this earth. 

“And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.” Isaiah 58:11