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Sometimes we are truly thankful for each day we manage to stay on top of the ground. If we lived a few thousand years ago, in or near the desert, we might prefer to get out of the hot sun by working underground. Digging tunnels that carried water from place to place would be like working in air conditioned comfort. Now the ancient me is thinking: “The longer I make the tunnel, the longer this cushy job will last!

Conserving water is one thing we’re forced to think about during a drought. And, sometimes it helps to consider the extremes when we’re searching for sustainable solutions. For example, there are golf courses on the Arabian Peninsula where the sprinkler system uses several times the usual amount of water, so that at least some of it will hit the ground before it evaporates. Yet, in ancient Ninevah and Babylon, there were pockets of innovation that produced aqueducts, various water elevators, and the earliest examples of that water culture we’ve come to know as hydroponics.

When I first moved to Western North Carolina, an auto mechanic told me about an area farmer that had two pastures for his cows. There was a small stream that divided the farm. The farmer had built a bridge for the cows to cross the stream between the two grazing areas. The bridge had a slight wobble. Not enough to spook the cows mind you, but just enough of a see-saw motion to drive a small pump so the cows would have fresh water in the appropriate trough.

With a global p[opulation of almost eight billion, getting water to where it’s needed, without wasting any along the way, is now more important than ever. That’s also how we save money. In the garden and across the farm, water and nutrients can be precisely directed just as they are in a greenhouse. We may not derive all the benefits of a controlled environment, such as having most of the water drain back into a reservoir with minimal loss due to evaporation. We can, however, use micro-irrigation techniques to save on most of the inputs.

By delivering plain water or nutrient solutions to the desirable vegetation with minimal overspray, we’re feeding our crops or ornamentals and not the weeds. The next time you think “Oh my aching back,” let this be a reminder that you will be saving far more than just money. Even so, the money is important and you will love the fact that micro-irrigation is dirt cheap. Little tiny drips and sprays delivered through little tiny tubes and driven by little tiny pumps make for a system that’s cheap to implement, cheap to maintain, and cheap to use. That is, when you compare it to the cost of the big stuff.

Usually, when you bury water pipes, you have to get them below the frost line. Micro irrigation systems can be configured to drain completely when the pressure is off. This means you can simply leave them on top of the ground or cover them with a layer of mulch. Of course there’s always the occasional oops factor to be considered. So when you do need to replace a line, you’ll be thankful that it’s not buried two feet deep.

Cutting in a new irrigation line can be achieved with little barbs that are simply pushed into the end of, or a hole in the side of, an existing line. A complete system can have any combination of sprayers, drippers, and soakers. These can simply be sized, so that the correct amount of solution is delivered without the need for expensive, high maintenance regulators.

While closed circuit irrigation systems are largely confined to the greenhouse, micro-irrigation can be adapted to field farming, the backyard garden, and the container systems in and around our homes and offices. And, if we design these systems correctly, we could recover much of the runoff.

In the decades to come, we will face an even greater variety of sustainability challenges. For example, unless something changes, in order to feed the people expected to occupy the planet by 2050, we would need to add an area the size of Brazil to that already used for food production. It simply begs the question: “After clear-cutting Africa, what would we then do for breathable oxygen?”

In all practicality, the changes we need to make can be painful, or we can view them as stimulating challenges. The more we understand the advantages of these new irrigation techniques, the more exciting the future of plant cultivation becomes. Not changing can be more costly than re-tooling, especially in light of the savings that can be realized on all fronts, in perpetuity. After all, who’s opposed to saving on labor, pesticides, fertilizer, and water in a way that yields healthier gardens and crops together with greater peace of mind.

If we borrow the best from the techniques commonly used within growing domes, greenhouses, and vertical farms, we can augment the knowledge gained through square foot gardening and apply it to square inch gardening. We will, for the first time in a long time, know what we’re eating. We will be positioned to better withstand drought conditions. We will mitigate soil depletion, excessive warming, and undesirable changes to our air envelope. And, for the control freaks among us, we will have even greater control.

Tooling Up for Hydroponics

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In his Parable of the Sower Jesus said: “Other seed fell among the thorns, and as the thorns grew up it was choked so that it yielded no grain.” In another related teaching the Master said: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while he slept, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and hastened away.”

In the first case it was the sower that created more work for himself and others by sowing seed among the less desirable plants. In the second case, the sower did everything right, but was the victim of an unfortunate circumstance. In each case, the question before the sower was one of how best to proceed once it was discovered the bramble and other weeds were harming the seedlings.

In one example the workers offered to pull up the weeds but the householder said: “No, lest as you are gathering them up, you uproot the wheat also.” He then described how the weeds and the wheat should be separated at harvest time when the wheat was mature, storing the wheat while burning the weeds.

Our Father in Heaven permits good and evil to go along together until the end of our growing season, just as the wheat and the tares grow side-by-side until the harvest. While it is, of course, easier and safer to separate the valuable crop from the undesirable weeds at harvest time, the challenges to the crop during the growing season may actually prove to be of some value.

The quality of our own endurance is often enhanced through challenges just as the hardiness, disease resistance, and steadfastness improve in the plant world. There is value in grappling with hardships.

We started this discourse with the statement “There is a ruggedized form of ministry.” Indeed, ours is a servant ministry. God is not raising us only to become hothouse orchids, for beauty is also found in the irrepressible reach for better things. We don’t embrace potential evil, although its existence can serve to exalt and differentiate the good by contrast.

Having us corralled into service of the Kingdom, through fear of reprisal or hell fire and brimstone, is of no more value to God than the sacrifice of virgins to a volcano. Recurrent uncertainties may indeed prompt us to choose the divine life over the self-life. But to manifest loyalty, in accordance with our highest and best understanding of truth, beauty, and goodness is of the most real, most enduring value.

We emerge from the thicket through a sincere love of the things our Heavenly Father holds dear. Our faithfulness, as evidenced by our adherence and fidelity to Divine values, is usually prerequisite to the assurances and the certainty of faith. The fact that we can draw an advance through the unmerited favor we term grace, is an indication of Our Father’s love for us. It does not mean that we should facilitate, engage in, or even flirt with disloyalty while making a presumption of Divine Mercy.

Those who placed a crown of thorns upon the head of our beloved Sovereign were not honoring him with an earthly monarchical crown. It was instead employed to cause physical and psychological pain, to mock him as they took to a knee and shouted “Hail King of the Jews.”

While such cruelty might have gratified his tormentors, Jesus was unwavering. He was steadfast in his loyalty to the Father’s will and his supreme values. Jesus stood majestically among the weeds and thorns. The stark contrast between the courage of Jesus and the moral cowardice of his accusers is not unlike that of the bramble that frustrates us; and the spiritual fruit that both defines and nourishes us.

When we have good seed, it is worth sowing intentionally, in fields receptive to it, and capable of supporting it. The Gospel seed is too precious to waste along the wayside, in the rocky places, or where it might be subject to thorny hazards that are best avoided. I once led a youth group where a highly impressive teen shared her wisdom during the discussion of a bible verse. She was spiritually illuminated as she stood before the group and said: “I’m the only bible some people will ever read.” I wanted to be like her as my thoughts immediately turned to a poster I once saw. It read: “Stand for what’s right even if you stand alone.”

We may, at times, be called to stand among the thorns just as Jesus did when his kingly bearing so impressed his captors. As we become more responsive to Divine Leading, we will learn to recognize the good soil and what has long been described as the teachable moment. The Promised Helper will guide us into all truth and remind us of the most appropriate lessons to share from among those truths.

Right now, our planet is so confused, so strife torn, and so rebellious that we are working in less than ideal conditions. Even so, we can help clear the way, work the soil, bring amendments; Create conditions where the Jesusonian Gospel of God within will emerge victorious.

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On January 6th in the year 2021, hoards of emotionally charged, intellectually stunted insurgents breached security and stormed into the United States Capitol building. Elected representatives were evacuated. The traitorous, treasonous, seditionist, insurrectionist authoritarian enablers among them tried to distance themselves from the violence they intentionally fomented. For such unrepresentative elected representatives, statesmanship is an arcane banished idea while its distant cousin, politics, is taken to illogical extremes.

Our country’s organizing principle is the spirit of the law. It is articulated in a carefully crafted Preamble that begins with the words “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union . . .”

From such a coherent value proposition, one that is often ignored by those occupying the commanding heights of government while masquerading as originalists and textualists, coherent strategies could and should evolve. But there are true enemies, advocating moral anarchy, exerting a corrosive influence on the democracy underpinnings of our constitutional republic, as well as others around the world.

Sun Tzu, in The Art of War, made it abundantly clear that “Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.” Indeed, to restore the rights of a people as they work, to become the arbiters of their own destiny, appeals to the Spirit within each of us. The only societal arrangement that will ultimately satisfy, perhaps even enthuse such a Spirit activated group is government of, by, and for the people.

John Wycliffe, in the preface to his 14th Century bible translation to Middle English, made it clear that the bible advances “government of, by, and for the people.” The offended priesthood of his day, dug up and burned his bones. It is not unlike the force behind today’s dark money, the gerrymandered maps, assault weapons on full display and all the other means of voter intimidation and suppression. These faux Christian conservatives push incessantly for things antithetical to the biblical principles they claim to represent.

By means of a variety of political sophistries, a few inheritors, skimmers, and hoarders of wealth have routinely thwarted the will of the many. Through a pseudo-religious hucksterism, some have even sacrificed a witness to the kingdom within, while engaged in a masquerade that stands in stark contrast to the cardinal precepts contained in the bible they like to thump.

Marketeers and politicians place great emphasis on what they term key differentiators, or what sets us apart. Today, the divide is dangerously wide. In our supercharged political environment, we tend to view the world through polarized lenses, seeking and seeing only what is pre-packaged to fit our circumscribed world view. It is a mediated world, replete with a tribal epistemology that reduces every value proposition to a binary choice where the question is: “Are they with us or against us?”

We must each ask ourselves: “To which ‘us’ are you referring?” At this juncture we should also pause to consider just how any understanding of the term “us” is ripe for a paradigm shift – a Pareto flip. In the United States, over the past decade, about 600 billionaires have controlled the information flow to 330 million people.

Conservative columnist George Will, in his book Statecraft as Soulcraft examined how the power of the state can create conditions that either foster the growth of blessed souls or the imprisonment of seriously stunted and tortured souls. He admits that his vision may appear to share some traits with totalitarianism. However, like Edmond Burke, Will places great emphasis on the voluntary associations and values that are seen as essential to a fully informed consent of the governed and a functioning free society.

In his own historically rich book; The Soul of America, biographer John Meacham wrote: “in the battle between the impulses of good and of evil in the American soul, what Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature” have prevailed just often enough to keep the national enterprise alive.”

Today, win-win is often not perceived to be of value to a taint by numbers politician or any other party trying to differentiate by leveraging fear, ignorance, bigotry, and smear. It is a Joe McCarthy era tactic known by the acronym FIBS. When it is seen as politically expedient, they even divide us on consensus issues. And yet, once we blow through our own politically conditioned understanding, or expand our horizons beyond the Twitter-verse, we find we have far more in common than any self-serving political operative would have us believe.

Our focus must be more about finding our center, our soul, our statesmanship than it is about politics. Because, today’s politics is mostly about opposite poles on a line. We need to be mindful of the fact that: “No bird can soar except by outstretched wings.” And that, as experience has shown; the amount of lift produced at the wingtips is clearly not sufficient to overcome the gravity of our present situation.

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I recall reading a certain Superman comic-book story in my youth. Our hero was having more than a few bad days. On one of them, he had built and gifted a high-tech solar array to Metropolis. It was reflecting sunlight into, what would otherwise be, shadowy places. Unfortunately, the concentrated sunlight was also causing major fires. As you might imagine, Superman had a PR problem as the city was responding with hostility rather than kudos.

This story came to mind when I first read about a device for tracking the sun that was featured in a KickStarter campaign about eight years ago. The SunnyBot, as it was named then, was a sun-tracker that provided a way to reflect light on a fixed point of the user’s choosing. In other words, what amounted to a motorized mirror, could be used to focus the light on a crystal chandelier, to create a rainbow effect all day long. 

Having grown up, to the extent I grew up, as part of a patent office family in the burbs of Washington, DC, I remember thinking: “There’s nothing really protectable here.” The motor base was basically of the same type that was used decades before to track, center, and image stars through long exposure photography. Then, when someone decided it would be useful to follow our own sun across the sky with solar panels, the same basic techniques were used.

The thing that was unique about the SunnyBot, was that the user could effectively dial-in the reflection angle, and have that angle continuously recalculated as the primary mirror moves, and as the reflector target remains fixed. Most of the comments I read, prior to cancellation of the KickStarter campaign, related almost exclusively to hobbyist or novelty uses such as the one involving the chandelier.

Even though I failed to see a viable and protectable business model, I was really disappointed when the developers seemed to give up on the project. To me, the promise for such a device was in feeding the world without having to destroy more forests. The idea, that one could set a robot controlled mirror on a pole in a clearing and beam a shaft of light under the forest canopy, to a growing dome or greenhouse, thrilled me.

While the original SunnyBot was largely built upon ‘prior art,’ it was also marketed lousy. The highest and best value proposition for such a device was not pretty rainbows on dining room walls. It is rather, increasing the kind of photosynthesis that is used to produce your Impossible Burger.

For those that object to the way large agri-business concerns operate, for those concerned about the lack of transparency with respect to what’s actually in our food, having a growing dome over the kitchen would be a dream come true. And, having just the right combination of shade from deciduous trees and light precisely directed from the clearings, is now more realistic than ever before. For safety, the mirror system could even be detuned by means of pneumatics or hydraulics should the electricity fail. Got that Superman?

To round out such a vision, a rotating clock wheel type gantry system would insure the plants within the dome each received an appropriate share of available natural light. Photosynthetic Active Radiation (PAR) sensors on the dome could be monitored by an inexpensive Arduino or Raspberry Pie computer. That computer could log the intensity and wavelength of the light entering through the window and then calculate the precise amount and color of any artificial light needed to support optimal plant growth.

The software that would control the mirrors, as well as that needed to measure and control the light within the dome, could be developed and maintained within the public domain to insure the maximum benefit to a great humanity. The scripts necessary, to produce the required mechanical parts with 3D printers, could also be made available royalty free. All of the things necessary, to insure world wide food security though a system that reflects the design criteria that then insures there will be “no single point of potential failure,” are well within our grasp.

Precisely directed illumination complemented by customized gantry systems are in use today in vertical farms located within, or at the edge of, major cities. These futuristic farms also make extensive use of hydroponics techniques that include micro-irrigation, specialized nutrient solutions, and optimized gas envelopes. But once the cities become dependent upon these large farms and the cross country trucking is winding down, a pathogen introduced intentionally or accidentally could take out a big part of the food supply for an entire city.

The no single point of potential failure doctrine will ultimately drive the movement towards produce department sized growing domes as well as the home scaled growing dome. When the oops factor presents itself, as it undoubtedly will, we would have options. I’m excited about building a growing dome over my kitchen. Even so, I’ve experienced more than my share of senior moments lately and will likely make some mistakes. Sooo neighbor, don’t be surprised if I knock on your door and ask to borrow a tomato.

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There is abundant evidence that human beings were working stone over two and a half million years ago. Early humans were making Acheulean axes and other large cutting tools over one and a half million years ago.

Two hundred thousand years ago middle stone age tool kits included scrapers, stone awls, the points of spears. And yet, two thousand years ago and even today, anyone working the land would regard a field of stone as a royal pain in the . . . 

In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus described such places as having “little soil.” It would quickly dry out which meant that seedlings would usually be unable to obtain the necessary moisture and avoid withering in the hot sun. They would be unable to put down roots so even if they emerged in spite of such conditions, they couldn’t be relied upon to weather even a short period of drought.

Veteran cosmic rockers can recall the lyrics to a song by the Rolling Stones that includes the chant: “I ain’t got no love, I ain’t the kind to meet. ‘Cause she’ll never break this heart of stone.” The people listening to Jesus were equally well versed in Ezekiel and the chapter where God said: “I will give you a new heart and take away your heart of stone.”

Our own endurance is dependent upon the ability to put down roots. When our relationships are shallow, when our friendships are superficial, and when our communities are inauthentic, we are at risk. Working to maintain relationships can be difficult. It may involve breaking rocks, preserving what little soil we have, and even bringing in the human equivalent of soil amendments.

Where the relationships are worth having because others value them as much as we do, we would not be unequally yoked while we work the soil. In fact, where values are shared, where we are equally yoked with our cohorts, the work can be far, far more enjoyable. We are constantly reminded that we are a part of something bigger than ourselves.

Shallow soil makes it difficult to build authentic communities. We are wholly dependent on individual relationships and hopefully these are truly genuine. Deep seated, positively symbiotic relationships occur when they are reciprocal, mutually beneficial, and complementary.

We live in a time when stone can quickly be turned into the kind of dust that can prevent soil from being compacted. It can also sometimes, through abrasive action, polish the gems of truth that we acquire in the rough. The growth that occurs in the depths of our souls, thanks to obstacles along the way is seldom achieved through just accepting the kind of situation where we are between a rock and a hard place.

Sometimes it may seem as though a field of stone is all we have within a material world. And yet, in this designer universe, the same atom that can cause kidney stones or calcify arteries, contributes to the strength of our bones and the bricks we use to build our homes.

With the right attitude, the worst case scenario can become the most stimulating challenge. Just how we rise to meet any given problem is usually a matter of spiritual idealism, of our enthusiasm for life.

Agrarian societies tend to gravitate towards the fertile bottom land where the river and all of its tributaries contribute to soil tilth as well as gut flora.There is, however, intense competition for lands that are ideally suited for providing nourishment. The Aztecs found their promised land on a small island at the center of Lake Texcoco. they lashed reeds together and built rafts on lake wetlands freshwater swamps. They scooped mud off the bottom and piled it onto these rafts to serve as soil for their produce.

The plants would send roots through the soil, penetrate the bottom of the raft, and derive nutrients directly from the waters and later the deposits on the bottom. This heroic survival story included tales of these “Chinampas,” that either included a gardener’s hut or were adjacent to the gardener’s household. The gardener would pole the raft-garden to the marketplace. Eventually these rafts were lashed together and poles were driven into the lake bottom. The island became the city of Tenochtitlan and later on, Mexico City.

Other, equally tenacious civilizations found ingenious ways to move water up hill. The hanging gardens of Babylon may eventually inspire a growing dome over your kitchen, rivers running atop the walls of your house, food and flora whenever and wherever you want or need it. And this is why the Parable of the Sower and the lessons that relate to providing favorable conditions for growth, will always ring true.

Today, crushed rock is used in most hydroponic systems. And, approximately one third of the recorded words of Jesus are in the form of parables. These parabolic analogies, many of which focus on spiritual growth, gracefully transcend time. Perhaps this is why we see so many signs that say “You are closer to God’s heart in a garden than anywhere else on earth.”

Tooling Up for Hydroponics

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As the clock struck 11 p.m. on New Year’s Eve in 2020, and as the British exit from the European Union was finalized, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, tweeted: “Scotland will be back soon, Europe. Keep the light on.” The First Minister intends to take an independent Scotland back into the EU. BREXIT is just the latest example of the ongoing struggle between those across the globe that are vested in nationalism, and others who believe the only way to stop the ritualized insanity of perpetual warfare is to somehow unite the world through an inherent desire for global peace and prosperity.

The European Union has, since its founding, been seen as a major though incrementalist milestone in moving the entire world towards an eventual federation of democracies. Many of the foundational principles for organizations such as NATO, as well as the EU, are informed by the work of Clarence K. Streit. As the New York Times correspondent at the League of Nations in Geneva, Streit understood the founding principles as they were articulated through the Treaty of Versailles.

He was impressed by this initiative for international cooperation that was formally established on January 10, 1920. He also saw how the League’s collapse was rooted in its inability to tap the power of individual conscience. Streit believed it was a mistake to identify democracy with either capitalist or socialist economics. His was a spiritual conception, one holding that “no community can live without a conscience, that we must hitch the community directly to the conscience of the individual.”

Streit understood that “whether we are establishing government between tribes, states or nations, the process is the same, the basic unit is still the individual man. The government must operate on him individually and the more directly it depends upon him, and upon his conscience, the more realistic and effective it will be.” He held that for global government to work, international institutions would have to penetrate the shell of national sovereignty and reach the core of each citizen’s loyalty. He presented his revolutionary book during a series of lectures at Swarthmore College in 1938.

Streit’s book, Union Now, is a classic work informing federalist political and constitutional thought. He is widely regarded as the founder of the modern world’s federalist movement. He ventured well beyond the sterile universalism of Geneva. He advanced the political and strategic framework, whereby a small union of democracies could develop peacefully. To this day it remains the most serviceable vision for eventual world peace. Such a nucleic union, by leveraging the dynamic-unifying elements of conscience, by making any authentic regional union the root of an ideological union, could eventually grow to encompass a world union since it would be based on the sharing of a universal value: individual freedom grown into a healthy collective freedom based upon the foundations of a healthy family.

A federation among nations, and the idea of tracing the responsibility for world peace to a group of democratic countries, informed Winston Churchill’s offer of a British union with France on June 16, 1940. Enthusiasts within the Union Movement played leading roles in developing the Marshall Plan and the formation of NATO. It inspired The Anatomy of Peace by Emery Reves in 1945. Streit built upon the logic of a revolutionary concept that extended beyond short sighted nationalism. The sovereignty of the individual citizen could at last be realized through a Federal Union of the Free.

In such a world-wide union, the smallest of nations would be “a part of the world and not a world apart.” They would be just as powerful as the greatest. We have many lessons derived from the American revolutionary experience and that of the early European Union. In the first instance, even though the land mass for the state of Rhode Island is just a little over one thousand square miles, it has two senators in the United States legislature. Alaska encompasses well over five-hundred thousand square miles of land, and it also has two senators. California has a population of about forty million people while Wyoming has about six-hundred thousand. Each of these states also have two senators.

While Brexit may have temporarily retarded the progress of a continent that hosted the planet’s first democracy in Athens, many in Great Britain are now regretting their decision to withdraw from the EU. This regional union is the clearest example to date of the schema described by Streit. Consider certain carefully delineated design imperatives as proposed through Union Now:

Just as local affairs in the United States are typically handled by local governments while national affairs are handled by national governments, an evolving world, such as ours, will one-day see its international affairs administered by a global democratic government. Once we’ve broken the cycle of ritualized insanity, where the answer to every problem is more armaments, each individual will be able to exercise greater liberty under such a global union.

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The home is the crowning achievement of human kind. Genuine science, philosophy and religion each recognize the home as the reward for progress, the capstone of an evolutionary struggle. Accordingly, the TLC broadcast is about The Living Crown as well as the Tender Loving Carethat is brought to bear for enhancing this, the most basic institution of human progress. The unique artistry that involves, living on the canvas, presents stimulating challenges as humanity’s masterpiece continues to take form.

Civilization’s most useful creation is certainly worthy of our attention. Here we will spend six minutes each week to focus on evolving science, best practices, and continuous improvements while we work to make our homes into a perfect fit. We will work to develop a better understanding of the close relationship between the enduring value of a stable home environment and the homestead as nurturing infrastructure. In also considering what is often described as housing security, we can clearly see how the home has become society’s true foundation.

We feature innovators sooo, whether you are Harry homeowner or Sally homesteader this program is for you. If you are a maker, a do-it-yourselfer, or a supervising project manager, you will gain valuable insights from experienced builders, contractors, manufacturers, and inventors. Rest assured, we’re not selling perpetual motion machines, although we are providing tips on just how you can tap into the full energy potential for your abode. We will borrow the best from gardeners and homesteaders around the globe to create more food and energy independence.

From that funky collection of batteries in the basement to the growing dome above the kitchen, we intend to cover it all. Through our discussion of in-law suites, granny pods, raised gardens, safe-rooms, stand-alone cabins, automated greenhouses, and even emergency shelters, we will likely gain new insights, on how to best apply the lessons learned, to enhance and sustain our individual modes of living. We will also consider a wide variety of enterprise class projects that can be home scaled.

Our series of conversations will revisit the victory garden as we leverage the technology of our day to produce the healthiest food possible, in abundance. We will learn about closed circuit and micro-irrigation systems. And, we will examine many of the other little things, within the home, that have such an outsized influence on our lives. This program is about entrepreneurial spirit and enjoying the journey as well as the destination.

If you are in a house that feels more like a strife-torn debtor’s prison than a home, we’ll help you to improve it, reduce the cost of running it, or plan your escape with a graceful transition. As you chart the path out of any hole you might have dug for yourself, you’ll hear from others that have been there, done that and about how they got on top of the situation. Perhaps you’re looking for ways to cut or shrink the public umbilical. We’ll talk about highly efficient appliances, versatile energy storage systems, and a wide array of high output home-scaled generators running on plentiful renewable resources.

Tiny homes, RVs, and vehicle conversion projects are gaining more attention as people, from all walks of life, are downsizing while they think about retirement, because they want to free up resources for other passions, or in response to the brutal economics associated with the 2020 pandemic. In such an environment, having a place for everything and everything in its place is important for maintaining our sanity. Even if we live in traditional homes, we can leverage the experience of those living with a minimalist foot print.

Maybe you are starting a home-based business. Maybe you already have one and have a hard time getting away from it for personal time. Our guests will tell you how you can stay ahead so you don’t lose your head. Whether you see the home as base camp or as your headquarters, you can borrow the best from innovators, experimenters, makers, and builders that are enthusiastic about optimizing within a home that supports that quest.

The practical application of lessons learned with respect to our basic sustenance, shelter, and strivings are key to finding and sharing solutions for feeding, sheltering, and supporting the people of the world in a sustainable way. We’ll learn from the work-a-rounds people do when they don’t have many of the things we take for granted.

Sooo, lend us your ear for six minutes each week and we’ll make it worth your while. Embrace the values affirmed here and you will be an integral part within a vibrantly alive culture of benevolence. Share what you learn here and you will be helping to take our planet from one level of true attainment to the next. Subscribe to this program at www.TheLivingCrown.org and, while you’re there, do a deep dive into some of the subject matter. You will also be giving voice to people who are sharing their love as they refine their craft.

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There is a ruggedized form of ministry that closely follows in the footsteps of Jesus. It operates in a way that is both informed by, and stems from, the Parable of the Sower. It serves to soften any compacted soil and it labors to break-up any rocky soil that might prevent seedlings from gaining a foothold. It engages in this necessary soil conditioning so that each individual seed, packed with all the potential God saw fit to include, can be planted at the proper depth and at the proper time. Let’s revisit this particular teaching, how the lessons gracefully transcend time, and how they inform our respective ministries going forward. Jesus put it this way:

“A sower went forth to sow. As he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside to be trampled underfoot and consumed by birds. Other seed fell upon the rocky places where there was little soil. It sprang up quickly because there was no depth to the soil. As soon as it was warmed by the sun, it withered because it had no root as a means to secure moisture. Other seed fell among the thorns, and as the thorns grew up, it was choked so that it yielded no grain. Still other seed fell upon good ground and, while growing, yielded, some thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, and some a hundredfold. The kingdom of heaven is also like a man who cast good seed upon the earth; and while he slept by night and went about his business during the day, the seed sprang up and grew. Although the Sower didn’t know just how it came about, the plant came to fruit. First there was the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And then when the grain was ripe, he put forth the sickle, and the harvest was finished.” — The Parable of the Sower as Told by Jesus.

While scattered seed that fell by the wayside may be trampled, this is not the only statement on record where Jesus referred to things of value being “trampled.” In the context of his lesson regarding the folly of casting one’s pearls before swine, he led by example when he refused to dignify the feigned curiosity of Herod whose questions were intended as a mockery rather than a sincere search for truth.

The Gospel is not to be thrust upon those who despise it. The incurious, the insincere, and the insolent are often found wandering aimlessly along the wayside. Those who are self-satisfied, not ready to reach for truth, too busy to grow spiritually, or whose hearts have become too calloused, may represent a soil too compacted to receive precious truth-bearing seed or a soul too distracted to enjoy seed bearing fruit. They may miss opportunities, but God wastes nothing.

If we are somehow reluctant to consume that which truly nourishes, the sparrows are not. Another way of looking at this is in the way birds may also play a role in scattering consumed, but undigested, seed. While those who are religiously atheist might look at Charles Darwin’s writings and his observations on the Galapagos Islands and conclude that such research is “proof” that evolution is happenstance, a person of faith is likely to reach entirely different conclusions from the same data.

We might see the same variety of birds, including one with a beak capable of crushing nuts and seeds to obtain nourishment. Then we see another bird with a beak so long and slender it can extract nectar from a delicate flower without crushing it. While the atheist would look upon this microcosm as random chance involving a collection of disparate elements, the believer beholds such beauty as yet another inspiring example of God’s handiwork.

Such an ingenious system of specialized and precisely targeted distribution, for an island’s limited food supply, is evidence of mind. The atheist sees the universe as the juxtaposition of random fortuitous events where somehow magic matter organized through mindless causation. The person of faith sees orchestration, by an ingenious composer and conductor, within a universe of universes responding to evolutionary over-control. Evolution is, after all, simply an unfolding, creativity that occurs over time.

Some must hold that science and religion are mutually exclusive in order to maintain an incoherent world view. This reflects a lack of understanding with respect to a trifurcation that took place during the enlightenment; For science is to facts, what philosophy is to meanings, and what religion is to values.

The Parable of the Sower highlights the fact that seed falling by the wayside is not likely to take root. That means both the seed and the labor are more likely to be wasted. The story of the sower highlights a very familiar process in a way that is factual as well as meaningful.

This particular story, as told by Jesus, presents the facts and meanings through a parable, a teaching style and technique also known as a parabolic analogy. He did this so that those of us “with ears to hear,” would find it not only factual and meaningful, but also valuable.