Jonathan Rogers, one of my favorite writing teachers, likes to talk about how writers are allies rather than in competition with each other. Over the past couple months I’ve been thinking about the imagery he uses in this post:

What you have is a territory—a little patch of ground that is yours to cultivate. Your patch of ground is your unique combination of experiences and perspective and voice and loves and longings and community. Tend that patch of ground. Work hard. Be disciplined. Get better. Your patch of ground and your community are worth it.

Isn’t that a beautiful way to express it?

One reason I keep being drawn back to this quote is because I think it’s true in our regular lives too. We’ve each been given one life, and what we do with it matters. It means something, the way we tend our patch of ground. You and I were given life by the Creator of the universe because He knew that our unique talents and personalities were needed in the world at this specific time.

These musings were prompted by something a friend said a few weeks ago. She pointed out a specific way that I had blessed another person in an area that has been incredibly painful for me in the past, and encouraged me to see how much my growth made a difference to the other individual. I’d tended my patch of ground, healing with the Lord’s help and cultivating this area of my life so that now it’s a blessing instead of a continued cycle of pain and trauma.

It did my heart good to think on these things. How the everyday work of seeking Jesus and living well benefits not only me but also the people around me. This life is hard. It’s challenging. It’s full of real problems that are bigger than we are. But this life is also precious. It’s a gift. And we have the Creator—the very One who conquered death—on our side.

What does tending your patch look like? To me, it first of all means spending time with the Lord, looking to Him every day to renew my heart and give me strength. It means working through the pain and uncertainty that may be lurking. It also means being authentic, because cultivating something fake is a waste of everyone’s time and energy—especially your own. Are you a strawberry patch? Bloom and share your delicious berries! Are you a potato field? Grow those sturdy roots and nourish those around you. But definitely don’t pretend you’re a potato field if you’re a strawberry patch, and don’t masquerade as a strawberry patch if you’re a potato field.

In other words, be who you are. God made you exactly as He wanted, with your own unique personality and gifts to bring to the world.

Another way we cultivate our patch is how we interact with others. Are we sowing seeds of kindness? Tending friendships that grow and blossom instead of wither and die? And do we ask for help and humbly receive it when needed?

Growing a beautiful life doesn’t happen on accident. Cultivating a patch of ground that blesses others takes work. But it’s some of the best work, because it truly makes a difference in this life and maybe even the next. Because your patch of ground might draw others to Christ, as they look at you and wonder Who it is that helped you grow a life of peace and joy.

Tend your patch, my friend. I’m just one patch over, doing the same and waving to you over the garden fence.

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