That’s a close up picture of my yard.  I love my yard.  It’s full of the thickest, best grass ever – St. Augustine.  This grass is wonderful for a lot of reasons, but the biggest for me is, it generally does not produce seeds, and what little seeds are produced do not germinate.  In other words, I’m not allergic to it! The other big thing is, it’s very easy to care for.  Here’s my “yard regimen.”

Three times a year – fertilize – green bag in the summer, purple bag in early spring and late fall.  The purple bag has a herbicide in it that also acts as a pre-emergent.

October 31st and February 14th – pre-emerge.

March/July- Season long fire ant killer.  It lasts about 3 months or so with each treatment.

1st week in May, 1st week in August – Grub killer – it also kills just about everything else, except for rolly pollys for some reason…

Mow every week with a mulching mower – do not collect the clippings.  They add nitrogen and other nutrients to the soil.  Set the mower height as high as it will go.

Every week to 10 days – water deep.  I do this year round, even in the winter.

Yes, I do all that – religiously.  I don’t miss a step.  And my grass is green even in the hottest weather.  It lasts longer into the winter, and comes in earlier in the spring.

The most important step though is the watering.  I could skip any of the other steps, and in the past, for various reasons, I have.  I didn’t do any of my fall treatments one year because I shreaded my achilles tendon, and it was ok, because I made sure the grass was watered.

Now, I need to define what I mean by water deep, and also add that you should water in regular intervals.  Your yard needs about 1-1 1/2 inches of water a week.  More when it’s hot, less when it’s not. I have conditioned my grass to need only about 1″ of water every week.  That picture above was taken last July, right before I watered.  It had been over 100 degrees every day since I watered, about a week earlier.

When the grass is kept at the proper height, and it’s been conditioned properly, it can withstand a whole lot of abuse.  The reason is, when you stress the grass, when you spare it the constant, daily, shallow watering, it makes the roots grow deeper and deeper.  It makes them more reliant on what is already in the ground – what it is already connected to.  It makes it grow thick and deep – it is seeking the cooler, moist soil so that it can continue to grow and be healthy.

Deep growing thick grass is impenetrable and impervious.  Weeds can’t germinate in it because they are crowded out – the weed seeds have to touch the soil before they can grow.  Bugs can’t colonate in it either because they use all their resources just to get through 4 inches of grass and a nice healthy 1/2″ thatch layer.

It wasn’t like that in the beginning though.  It actually took me several growing seasons to get here.  It took diligence and hard work.  But it has paid off.  I have a great looking yard.

You know, the same principles apply to your Christian life.  You need to be cared for, tended to, fertilized, watered, and sometimes you even need to be mowed a bit.  I think though that just like the grass in my yard, you need a deep, thirst quenching drink of life giving water.  And you need it regularly.  Water is life.  Without it, you will die.

John 7:37 Jesus says, “If you’re thirsty, come to me and drink.”  Drink it all.  Try to drink him dry.  Drink deeply and be filled so that there’s no more thirst.  If you do, rivers of living water will flow from you!  If you take what the Son offers, you will not just be satisfied, but through him you will be a source of that same living, life giving water.  Jesus has given it to us to share with a world that is drowning in it’s own thirst.

Our job, job one, as a follower of Christ – be Christ to others.  Offer that living water freely.  Don’t hold back!  This world needs Christ and you have him – so give him away!  There are thirsty people all around you all day long.  Be a sprinkler system for Jesus.  Hose them down!  Teach them to drink deeply of what is offered to them, tend to them, fertilize them, and when needed, trim them up a bit.

This is how it was intended to be.  This is how the Good News is spread.  This is how the world is changed.  Water deep!