Vegtables Piles of organic, dark leafy greens filled the small building with their freshly picked pungency. As part of a community-supported agriculture program, I had come to gather my produce—pound after earthy pound of salad greens, beet greens, Swiss chard, spinach, kale, and more.

What to do with all this verdant richness? I didn’t really want it. My family wouldn’t eat it. In fact, a friend’s son had renamed the pickup location Kaleville after its bumper crop that none of us wanted to consume. Still, I knew it was good for me, and I had purchased part of the crop, so I dutifully filled bag after bag with greens. And later ate them all.

The CSA recipes suggested sautéing the dark, bitter green vegetables with fresh garlic and salt. Not real bad, if I cooked them long enough and ate them quickly. Fortunately, Swiss chard and beet greens proved slightly more tender and palatable. For the less-bitter greens I dared to make salads, adding a mixture of avocado, buttermilk, cilantro, and a bit of garlic and dill to avoid commercial salad dressings.

With effort, I managed to come close to eating three to five servings of dark leafy greens daily. Maybe it wasn’t a gourmand’s dream, but I knew my cells welcomed the valuable nutrients and important trace minerals so I could dispense with the synthetic vitamins. Much to my chagrin, I learned that the deeper and darker the greens, the greater the plant’s vigor, and the healthier I could become by eating them daily.

Just as humans regularly need the nutrients in the dark leafy greens for physical vitality, we also benefit from the spiritual blossoming that comes as an outgrowth of planting ourselves in the House of the Lord. The Psalms describe a person who dwells in God as flourishing, full of sap, very green, and yielding fruit in old age (Psalm 92:10-15). The apostle John also tied together physical and spiritual salubrity in his third letter: “Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers” (3 John 2, New American Standard Bible).

Jesus added a third dimension to wholeness—mental well-being—completing the mind-body-spirit triangulate popularly discussed today. Jesus not only healed regularly, but He sent out His disciples with the message to “…cast out demons…” (Matt. 10:8, NASB). Our mind-body-spirit robustness is enhanced when we plant ourselves in the House of the Lord so our spiritual and mental sap can increase. This is not always easy, and can even get quite boring during dry spells. Likewise, eating fresh, dark, leafy greens each day not only can be boring, but it’s also easy to get very tired of them. However, the discipline of daily spiritual practice and daily dietary improvements can pay off well in a healthy spirituality and improved physical vitality.

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