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| Ordinary Shasta Daisies rank high in hosting beneficial insects. Do not despise them. |
The gardening supply companies are in panic. They are afraid the season will close without my purchase of their plants and equipment, so they are loading my mailbox and email with their pleas.
The offerings are vast and exotic. I read the print catalogues to learn more about plants and their growing habits. Dutch Gardens, one of the best suppliers of fall (hardy) and spring (tender) bulbs will describe something really unusual and close with - "rare and choice."
Most of the time I test plants by buying one or two at Walmart or Lowe's. My shocker this year was the ordinary and widely used Shasta Daisy. I never would have bought one, except Jessica Walliser said it was a great plant for beneficial insects, especially the most voracious. Ladybugs get all the publicity, but others do most of the work. The moment I planted two daisies, the Tachinids landed - and I see them all the time on the flowers, little bristly "houseflies" that are great pest destroyers.
Everyone loves roses, but daisies make the roses better by destroying the destroyers. After neglecting them for decades, I have to admit that daisies brighten up the garden by constantly blooming.
Luther talks about religious leaders who are "head over heels in holiness." Synods throw all kinds of money and honors at those who posture about the latest and most favored fads. The mini-bishops protect the worst offenders because so much has been bet on them - and yet they fail spectacularly and often quite publicly.
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| I told the weed-eating crew - save the Pokeweeds. I like them. "We gathered that," one said, looking at a row of them bearing berries. |
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| Before I knew, I hacked down Pokeweed, which grew wheresoever birds landed. QED - birds love it. |
Pokeweed horrified me with its enormous growth and promiscuous production of berries - until I learned it was the best bird feeder of all - and free - while providing flowers that hosted...you guessed it...beneficial insects.
The Application
The real work is being done by ministers who are never in the limelight and are consistently passed over by the great and mighty. And yet from a distance, the chosen ones seem so glamorous and talented. At least, they think so.
How many synodical bureaucrats actually give original sermons from the Scriptures on a weekly basis? Precious few - I am sure. My friends even caught them borrowing each other's "devotions," which probably came from Fuller in the first place - Messages That Move Mountains, or something equally silly.
The overlooked ministers can comfort themselves with the knowledge that synodical favor is inevitably toxic. Treasures in heaven only come from treasuring the Word of God, never from marble, gold, and silver - or buildings built by the guilt-money from evil, treacherous, two-faced philanderers..
One Babtist minister spoke about a couple that left his congregation. He asked them why. They said, "You never go deep." He had a remedy for that rebuke - "Never ask members why they left."
That has now become a running joke on email, where we measure whether someone is "going deep" or not.
