Watering Our Faith

Last year, for Mother’s Day, my son got me a flowering plant. It came in a decorative pot that fit perfectly on my kitchen window sill. The plant had little red flowers and delicate leaves. I watered it faithfully once a week. After a while, the flowers fell off. I kept watering it, because the leaves were still growing, and I figured it might flower again next spring. Well, it didn’t. I considered repotting it in a new container, but then it wouldn’t fit on my kitchen window sill. As time wore on, I became less consistent in my care of the plant. I’d go away on vacation, or get busy with other things, and forget to water it. After a whole year of keeping it alive, I didn’t want to bother with it anymore. Finally, I gave up on it and threw it out.

Sometimes we treat our faith like a potted plant. We tend it carefully when it is flowering. We care for it as long as it fits perfectly in the space we have allotted it. Yet, when it grows too big and requires more from us, we are reluctant to rearrange our lives to accommodate it. Over time, we get busy with other diversions and neglect it. Eventually, we give up on it.

Faith and love are interconnected. Faith is a loving, trusting relationship with God. Like any relationship, the love we have for God needs to be nurtured regularly. How can we keep watering our faith even when it is past its blooming stage? A few spiritual disciplines that nourish my relationship with God are—Bible study, reading other good books, prayer, writing, and personal retreats. I’m sure that each one of us has a different list of ways we maintain our connection to the Divine. Whatever our methods, as long as we are actively tending to our faith, it will continue to flourish.