Lessons from the Mulch Pile

Wednesday, August 1st, 2007

“Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” – Philippians 2:4

Have you ever walked through your neighborhood on a spring day and looked inside other people’s garages? Don’t the contents look familiar? Don’t they look remarkably similar to the contents of your own garage? I’m not suggesting that we all start forming communes, but couldn’t we do a better job of sharing?

On a recent trip to do some teaching on the East Coast, I had dinner at the home of some new friends. In their yard stood a pile of mulch. A big pile of mulch. It turns out they had gone in on the purchase with their neighbor. In part, in was a money-saving idea since they split the cost of delivery. But it was also an opportunity to build a relationship with their neighbor—“an opportunity for us to meet at the fence,” is how they put it.

What if we all started looking for more opportunities to “meet at the fence?” Instead of every family buying its own swing set or inflatable pool, what if several families went in on such purchases together? Instead of every gardener on the block renting their own rototiller to work on their vegetable patch, what if we rented one together for a day and shared it? We’d probably save a little money. And we might just make some new friends along the way. Call it a modern expression of the apostle Paul’s teaching: “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:4).