Being from Brooklyn, I came to manure late in life.  By that I mean in my 30's when I started reading Organic Gardening magazine.  Free is good, I thought.  So at first I picked up some free manure from a local horse owner.  Good stuff but along with my tomatoes were an awful lot of weeds.  There had to be something better and off I went to the local nursery where it wasn't free but it was close to dirt cheap.  And it was sterilized - no weeds, no hay!

A few years ago when I first wrote my song "Dung me Lord, dung me"  I started thinking about the kind of manure God was using on me.  What was he using to make me bear fruit in my life?  Was it like the free stuff or was it sterilized?  That's when I realized the most important ingredient in His recipe for creating a living epistle out of junk mail was people.  All sorts of people.  Moms and Dads, brothers and sisters, Aunts and Uncles and cousins too.  A few helpful neighbors, a few nosy neighbors.  Good friends and enemies too.  People who affirmed and people who challenged.  Partners and competitors.

Each person in our lives is a source of growth.  They all help us to become Christlike in one way or another.  The really great ones keep us humble.  The poor keep us compassionate.  The lovers help us keep on giving.  The needy allow us to pour ourselves out until there is nothing left of us and we have to allow God to take over.  The evil ones drive us to our knees in fervent prayer.  Years ago the "in" expression was that God doesn't make junk.  The reason junk is worthless is because it's useless.  God doesn't make anything that isn't useful.

So look at your spouse with appreciation.  Call your annoying sibling and tell him or her you love them.  Thank Mom and Dad.  And love your enemy.