"mowing the lawn or developing families?"
Wednesday, February 18, 2009 Filed in: deep thoughts
i like to go on walks.
i’m naturally an extravert and don’t need inordinate
amounts of alone time, but my walks are my sacred
time. this is something i discovered early on last
year. for some reason, my walks tend to be where God
talks to me the most. as i walk and my mind wanders,
God reveals things to me that He doesn’t in other
places. i’m not sure why this is, but i’ve been
taking advantage of the discovery on a pretty regular
basis for a while now.
today is 3rd Wednesday (a monthly day of prayer and reflection at ROCKHARBOR). so, i thought it would be good to start my day with a walk before heading out to the noon prayer gathering. as i was walking along pondering the meaning of the universe or wondering why God made Mountain Dew taste so good, i stopped to take notice of my surroundings. down the way, i saw a man mowing the thin strip of grass that runs along Jamboree in between Campus and Dupont. it’s a long strip of grass and while it’s not very wide, it would take three or four trips up and down the strip to mow all of it. i’m ashamed to admit that normally, i wouldn’t take the time to even notice someone doing something like that. but, for some reason, i did today.
as i was walking along pondering my next steps in developing families at ROCKHARBOR, here is a guy mowing the lawn. his job is to push a lawn mower up and down this ridiculously long strip of grass three or four times before moving on to the next ridiculously long strip of grass. as i got closer, i noticed something... the guy was smiling. he was enjoying his work. here i am, starting to feel sorry for this poor guy pushing a lawn mower (which, in my mind, i’ve equated to Sisyphus pushing his rock), when he wasn’t feeling sorry for himself. he was doing his job. the same as i do mine. and yet, for some reason, i was (without thinking about it) ready to write him and his job off as unimportant in my worldview. (which is funny because if he wasn’t doing his job, i’m the idiot who’d be complaining that the grass was overgrown and wondering where my association fees were going. uggh. i’m a moron.)
i know this isn’t the most profound realization ever, but for some reason, it hit me hard today. i’m not that great. i’m definitely no better than the guy pushing the lawn mower. even more importantly, God loves that guy just as much as He loves me. (fortunately, God doesn’t love on a rating scale because that guy just might deserve God’s love more than i do.) why are we so quick to dismiss somebody like that? i guess i shouldn’t say “we.” maybe you don’t. i hope you don’t.
i hope i don’t... anymore.
that’s all.
today is 3rd Wednesday (a monthly day of prayer and reflection at ROCKHARBOR). so, i thought it would be good to start my day with a walk before heading out to the noon prayer gathering. as i was walking along pondering the meaning of the universe or wondering why God made Mountain Dew taste so good, i stopped to take notice of my surroundings. down the way, i saw a man mowing the thin strip of grass that runs along Jamboree in between Campus and Dupont. it’s a long strip of grass and while it’s not very wide, it would take three or four trips up and down the strip to mow all of it. i’m ashamed to admit that normally, i wouldn’t take the time to even notice someone doing something like that. but, for some reason, i did today.
as i was walking along pondering my next steps in developing families at ROCKHARBOR, here is a guy mowing the lawn. his job is to push a lawn mower up and down this ridiculously long strip of grass three or four times before moving on to the next ridiculously long strip of grass. as i got closer, i noticed something... the guy was smiling. he was enjoying his work. here i am, starting to feel sorry for this poor guy pushing a lawn mower (which, in my mind, i’ve equated to Sisyphus pushing his rock), when he wasn’t feeling sorry for himself. he was doing his job. the same as i do mine. and yet, for some reason, i was (without thinking about it) ready to write him and his job off as unimportant in my worldview. (which is funny because if he wasn’t doing his job, i’m the idiot who’d be complaining that the grass was overgrown and wondering where my association fees were going. uggh. i’m a moron.)
i know this isn’t the most profound realization ever, but for some reason, it hit me hard today. i’m not that great. i’m definitely no better than the guy pushing the lawn mower. even more importantly, God loves that guy just as much as He loves me. (fortunately, God doesn’t love on a rating scale because that guy just might deserve God’s love more than i do.) why are we so quick to dismiss somebody like that? i guess i shouldn’t say “we.” maybe you don’t. i hope you don’t.
i hope i don’t... anymore.
that’s all.