My Dear Son T, 

Every time I visited you, I brought home with me some sad and dying plants in hope of bringing them back to life again. Amazingly, after a month or two most of them revived. Your wife nicknamed my house "Granny's Hospital". You asked me what my secret was since I did not have any gardening training. Indeed, I have not had any training in that respect, which is why I could not pass on any tips. 

The other day I decided to clean up all the boxes which have been piled up since we moved into this new house. As I was thumbing through old materials, I came across some sermon notes given by Professor Lin in the Bible study group at Princeton University three years ago. The topic was soil preparation. At the time the message did not impress me at all. But as I reviewed the notes, I saw that it provided a key to unlock the secret of reviving the dying plants in your house. 

I firmly believe that soil preparation is crucial for the healthy growth of a plant. Look at what was in the planters of those plants that I brought back: there were tea leaves, chewing gum, cigarette ashes and stubs. Every time I brought these plants home, the first thing I did was to clean up all those things. How could a plant grow when it was smothered with all that rubbish? 

Whenever I looked at those dried branches which were leafless and fruitless, I felt sad for they reminded me of my spiritual life. Very often we have a misconception that God is the one responsible for the growth and fruit-bearing in our lives. We think that since we are Christians, we can just sit tight and wait for the Lord to do the rest. We think that we do not need to pay the price of cleaning up and turning the soil, but rather we should just wait for the Lord to bear fruit for us. We forget how Jesus admonished us in John 15:6-8. He said, "If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in Me and My words remain in you. . . This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples."

 True, as Christians we have all repented and received new life from the Holy Spirit. Surely the same Spirit will enable us to grow. The questions are: Do we leave room for the Holy Spirit to minister to us? Do we suppress Him with all our old desires and habits, just as we smothered our house plants with all that rubbish? 

Sometimes we think it is possible for the old and the new to co-exist. You love to joke that God is generous -- He has the capacity to accommodate whatever we have. No! This is not true. In John 3:6 it says, "Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit." The old and the new cannot co-exist. If a person claims to be a Christian but finds no changes in his taste and desires, it is easy to see that there are problems with his new life.

I was recently touched by a newborn Christian's testimony at our church retreat. She testified that she had been praying a lot lately, for she was encountering many difficulties. However God did not answer her in the way she wanted. Then she tried to correct her attitude by seeking God's kingdom and His righteousness first. Every time in her prayers, she would spend a little time praising God rather than rushing into whatever was troubling her. She testified in tears that she sensed how self-centered she had been. Jesus Christ laid down His life for her sin and she, in turn, asked nothing but for herself. I was convicted by her testimony. As so-called "old Christians", many times we routinely pray to God without really meaning to communicate with Him, or without concern for His kingdom. It took a young Christian to convict me of my complacency. 

We are so blessed to have God's words to remind us and keep us from being self-centered, covetous, jealous and adulterous. There is one greater enemy, however, which can defeat us totally. That is complacency. If we feel comfortable with our old self and will not make any change through our new life, then the new life will be smothered. If a Christian is accustomed to a life without devotion, not going church or just routinely uttering his prayers, it will not be possible for him to grow in his new life. 

Your Mom has experienced lots of ups and downs in my walk with the Lord. Sometimes I have felt very refreshed, and yet there have been times when I felt very dry. I hope through the inspiration of preparing soil for our plants, we can learn to prepare the soil of our hearts. Let us get rid of our old habits and till our soil. May God help us to work with Him and bring forth bountiful fruit from a well-prepared soil. 

Abridged from pg.46, August 1995 issue of the Overseas Campus Magazine  

Ms. Fong comes from Shanghai and is currently a visiting scholar at Princeton University