Change and Growth

As it has been almost an entire year since I last posted I wanted to share two words that have been bubbling around my mind in the past few weeks. There are a lot of exciting changes that are in the process of happening in my household and as I prepare for them it has caused me to reflect on where I came from and how far I have come.

I am a huge advocate for social change. I believe in helping individuals change while simultaneously working to create collective change. I also love to see my progress. I like to see tangible ways that change is happening. I like to see results and I like to see them ASAP.

Change, I am finding, is a lot like growth. It happens steadily, slowly, overtime and can't be forced or rushed. My garden has been a huge reminder of why change is like growth.

Around this time last year we were creating the raised beds at our house and planting our garden. As someone who loves the harvest season I was anxiously awaiting that fruitful day. Last year we had a nice harvest, but it never felt like completely enough. I wanted more. I was impatient.

This year, however, I was overjoyed to see the wait was worth it. Where last year we had zero berries this year we have already harvested around 50 strawberries and we are about to have some blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries! It took them a while to grow, but now that the wait is over it was so worth it.

Last year it felt like we would never have any berries. This year we're constantly going out and picking more. Change is like that too. Don't be discouraged when things don't fall right in your lap. Don't expect everything to work out perfectly when you first try it. Instead take time, enjoy the smells around you, be in the present, and work towards that change. If you don't see results right away take time to just enjoy the process.

Sit down, grab a nice cup of coffee or dandy blend and enjoy the journey.
Most good things take time.

Grace & Peace, Tanner

Relational Discipleship: A Review

Recently I have been embracing my call of hospitality in many different ways and I've been discovering new ways to do so via food and the table. Since starting my job of teaching nutrition almost a year ago I have developed a huge love for local, fresh food. This has only naturally given me a profound appreciation of my garden plots and the act of producing my own food. It has connected what and how I eat to hospitality. Back in my undergrad I felt an explicit call to hospitality in my home, but had no idea that it would come to fruition in such a way as it has. In the midst of devouring essays by Wendell Berry and other gardeners, I had the privilege of reading to review Brian Craig Drurey's book "Relational Discipleship: Moving back home with God." I loved this quick and easy read and don't let the fact that it's an easy read tempt you to believe it's irrelevant. It's incredibly relevant in today's postmodern world. Here are my thoughts:
"Incredible read! Very good resource for discipleship. As someone who very much believes in what is called Relational Theology, I found Relational Discipleship to be an excellent companion through life. As someone who used to work for a church and now attends a house church I found Drurey's work very applicable and needed in such a time as this when churches all over the globe need to drastically re-evaluate their models! I especially enjoyed his metaphors and illustrations to demonstrate the process of returning home with God. There is such a need for hospitality in not only our discipleship practices, but also in our lives. We, American Christians, have seemed to have lost our call to hospitality, to open up our tables to the stranger, foreigner, and orphan. Food is something that can unite us all despite differences and Drurey's book reinvites back into a mode of hospitality. I could go on and on about his use of metaphors and his description of the woods, porch, door, and house of God, but to truly appreciate this book like I have you need to read it. You need to open the door to it's pages and taste and see how good and needed it is in our current climate."