Trimming the Grass
So the Lord must wait for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion. For the Lord is a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for his help.
Isaiah 30:18 NLT
Somedays I feel like a fool. Last Thursday was just one of those days; one of those days when I didn’t trust my gut or follow the evidence in front of me.
I spent an hour and a half mowing, without cutting any grass!
Now we can’t know the things we don’t know. And I didn’t know that you could lock the mower deck. Until Stephen came outside, just a few swipes left in the section I was working on, and asked “Are you cutting the grass?”
I had convinced myself that in fact I was cutting the grass. The grass was just shorter than I thought it was. It was ok that I couldn’t find the cut line when I would turn around to line up for the next pass. And it was ok that the mower really wasn’t throwing out much grass as I went along. Right?
I sat on the mower, feeling foolish and ready to cry; more embarrassed than anything. Internally, I knew something was wrong when I started mowing. I had messed with lowering the deck, in as much as I knew how, and just assumed it was fine. So I continued anyway.
Still near tears I grilled myself: Why hadn’t I trusted my gut feeling? Why hadn’t I stopped and asked Stephen to take a look? Why had I wasted all this time and gas? Then I stopped and checked myself. (Who else is incredibly good at beating up on themselves? It's a skill I wish I wasn't so naturally good at.) Sure the mowing wasn't done. But I had spent an hour and half outside, by myself, without distraction. There was some good in all that "wasted" time. And then I thought "Ah ha! My next weekly note!" We all find ourselves in situations when we know, deep within ourselves, that something isn't right. That we shouldn't continue until we have more information. That it's not time yet. That we don't have the right people with us. At least for me, embarrassment, pride, laziness or busyness are what usually stop me from listening to those internal nudges. Thankfully this time was just mowing the lawn; something rather trivial in the big picture of things. I went out the next day and did it all over again, the mower deck low enough to actually cut the grass. I'll be praying for you to trust all of those internal nudges God is sending your way this week! Will you pray the same for me?
Amera "trimming" the grass, September 2014.
Maybe she did more for the years than I did!
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