Tending Your Lawn
My family and I returned recently from a short trip and upon pulling up to our home I noticed something a little off about our lawn. On one hand there were parts of it that looked fairly robust and plush, yet there was a small section whose color had faded and was almost like that of straw. This small patch, seemingly insignificant, affected the beauty of the entire lawn.
We live in Farmingdale on a corner property, which sounds nice but I learned shortly after moving in that this requires a lot of work. In the winter this means that there is a lot more snow to shovel and in the spring/summer there is much more lawn to care for. Now we have a sprinkler system, which is programmed to go off each night sequentially for the 7 different zones. Some point last year we became aware that there were a couple of zones where the water was leaking. I leaped in to action and proceeded to turn those zones off, stopping the leak. I pounded my chest with bravado as I felt like the Hero who saved the day. However, even though turning off the zones stopped the leaking, it did not remedy the problem. Without the daily watering, these areas were now more susceptible to damage. I now had to remember to regularly use a hose to water it, yet often times I either forgot, got lazy or in this case I simply wasn’t around, resulting in a damaged lawn.
Do you ever forget to water the dry areas in your life?
I am certain that at times you have found that Life or situations have been overly brutal. It is has scorched your heart, your joy or your once happy-home. Responsibilities as a parent, a manager, student, friend, spouse or employee can distract you resulting in these other critical areas of your life becoming discolored, thirsting for a trickle. We oft find ourselves overwhelmed, disconnected or fatigued... displaying heatstroke-like symptoms. The reality is that we usually can not control the heat of our situations, but I do believe we can control how we respond and water it.
If you are like most, you will go weeks, months and years not watering these areas; in our homes, in our relationships and in our faith. We ignore the Zones where there is a broken sprinkler while we focus on things like career, children or satisfying self.
Ignoring problems only creates other and often Bigger problems
....So there I stood, suitcases still in my hand, looking at the dry area in the lawn I was faced with a few choices. I could:
(A) do nothing/ignore it and only look at the areas that are plush
(B) Give up on the entire lawn
(C) hope, wish and.or pray for that section to return to its former state or
(D) take the initiative, water it while praying for restoration
I took a deep breath and began to think. The conclusion that I came up with was that I didn't want a partially-healthy lawn, because partially-healthy is just a nice way of saying unhealthy. Therefore I made the scary choice of option D. Now would you believe that in just a few days, with a little patience and diligence that same seemingly good-for-nothing patch was sporting a healthy coat of green. It is no mistake that God has provided this example in nature just as a reminder to us today for our personal benefit
God has designed us to be much more resilient than grass and even when recovery seems impossible remember what is written in Luke 18:27 (The things that are impossible with people, are possible with God). It certainly may take more time than a few days but just know that a little watering can:
* reinvigorate that dried up marriage
* restore that broken heart
* revive that gasping dream
As a person intent on Living on Purpose, I encourage you to do an inspection of your life’s-lawn. There are likely some areas in your life or relationships that you have been ignoring for way too long. You have turned off the zone(s) instead of fixing the leak and therefore watering your purpose. I believe that there is still life left in those roots and pray that you will have the patience, desire and tenderness to partner with God and tend to these ignored, dried-up and seemingly hopeless patches in your life.