Greetings Friends!
Grace and peace be with you all for Holy Week, Easter and beyond!
Just like everyone else in the neighborhood, I tacked the yard for the first time this spring. I have a fairly large yard and I am thankful for whomever invented the riding mower (I just hope there is no video recording of me trying to get out of the culvert last summer). I feel overwhelmed with the yard. There is so much I could do, but not very much I want to do. I love a nice looking yard, I just would rather someone else do the work. I suppose being on this side of 50, a certain amount of fatigue, and apathy against trying to keep up with my neighbor has something to do with it.
Two years ago we had a new septic system put in and the guy trashed a good portion of the center part of our yard. (btw, do you think this is funny? On the first day the septic guy started to work, I gave him my cell number and said “Call me if anything comes up!”)
So I feel like I’m running on a treadmill as it relates to the yard, and seem to get by with the standard cutting, trimming, and picking up sticks. Having a wooded lot makes me mad…I was prepared to rake but not to pick up sticks. Sticks of every size and shape fall all the time, all over the yard. So it seems like payback to make a pile in the backyard and have a fire! My two dogs make it more difficult to do what I want to do. They leave gifts all over the yard and I have to take my pooper-scooper-upper and a bag and do the walk, once again hope no neighbors are watching. It’s just not cool to wave to someone driving by with the scooper in your hand.
So I’m out in back this weekend and I get a surprise. My wife, Sandi, says that when the septic guy moved dirt he moved her flowers around. So at the edge of my yard, in the midst of some dirt, weeds and whatever else these two bright red tulips bloom!! It was like the poster years ago that showed a dandelion growing up out of the sidewalk somewhere in New York, I think. So cool. So naturally I cut around that and will trim carefully to leave the two tall bright red tulips alone! I love just looking out there and I’ll forward a picture in the next couple days if I can.
Isn’t life like that? In the midst of being overwhelmed with so much to do, and so much on our plate, God brings up some color. In the midst of weeds, dirt and discouragement, God brings the sweet smell of grace and love. Reminds me of Matthew 6 where God teaches us to notice the flowers and birds of the air and remember how much more God will take care of us!! We can get off the treadmill of trying to do it all ourselves…it has already been done….Good Friday-Easter!
Let’s clear the clutter from our lives, pull the weeds, cut back on the self critic, and enter into the color of this coming week. Easter is the key to all that we believe, love and live for. Pray, read up on the Bible, attend services, and celebrate Easter…the new beginning, the new love of Christ Jesus. Makes the yard seem like small potatoes in the big picture…..
God Bless,
Pr. Doug
Eric is our current Webmaster and works on the NLS Communications Team. Raised in Judaism, he found Christ and the New Testament at age 16 in a Southern Baptist Church. He searched many denominations for the real church, only to find the Holy Spirit is present in all of them. He's worked for One for Israel, a group of native Israeli believers who are sharing the gospel in the holy land in Hebrew and is part of the only Hebrew speaking seminary in Israel.
