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Ok. Let's unpack that: we recently received an offer on our house, and came to terms on an acreage that we have had our eyes on for over a year. It's exciting, but daunting.
We've always had a small vegetable garden here but every year that we've had it, by September it's an overgrown mess of a jungle, and clear-cut logging is the only merciful option for putting that little plat of mismanaged, under-attended eco-disaster out of its sad state.
WELL, we think we can do better than that. So now we're shooting for entire acres of overgrown, mismanaged, under-attended eco-disasters. No more small time for us. We're going for whole eco-systems.
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We moved into our current house from a small apartment. Probably, 600 square feet? Time sort of fogs, but it wasn't big. Most of our furniture was "re-claimed." In fact, I don't think we had a piece of "new" furniture until a couple years AFTER we bought the house. Our living room was entirely empty for a long while. We had lots of help moving, so we were doing like a bucket brigade down the stairs and most of the way to the curb. I think it took us 3 hours to load the truck at the apartment, drive to the house and unload it. Then it was pizza 0'clock, and we were happy. This time...well, I don't think it's going to be as simple...
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We started packing this past week. Well, sort of. We actually started packing about 12 months ago. Then we started UNpacking about 6 months ago. Now, here we are, packing again. We started in the built-ins. That went pretty quick, because though there's lots of wrapping and paper and what-not, it just went easy.
Now it's the closets. Eeeesh.
My boys, especially the oldest, LOVE puzzles. Tigger has shown M-A-D puzzle skills and dominates on them over and over again. The younger...well, he thinks the puzzle pieces are cool, but on a more individual basis. He's more interested in their unique stories, and big on respecting their individuality it would appear, whereas Tigger is all about collective value and community. I guess what I'm sort of stepping around is that Tig puts the puzzles together. His younger brother...well, he just throws pieces into several small piles.
So we sat down and started separating puzzle pieces. Elmo goes here, Sesame street goes here, Spidey and his little X-Men friends go here, etc. etc. Well, we happen to have 5 Cars (c) puzzles. 4 come out of one box-a set of 4, and have similar size and graphics. Then there's this other one, that's different and has it's own box. But they're all Lightning Muh-'twween (as he is known in these parts). So as far as Younger is concerned, by virtue of all being Cars puzzle pieces, they all go in one pile. I thank him, and while he runs back to the main pile of puzzle pieces, I try to weed out the unique pieces of the 5th puzzle from the 4. He comes back, and dumps pieces from the 5th puzzle into a pile with the other 4, recognizes that I've separated some, and grabs those pieces and puts them BACK with the other 4. I thank him for his help, and recognize how ridiculous I had been to separate what has been brought together, and he goes back to work.
Yeah. Thanks. A-Lot.
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Why do I thank him? Because I don't see any point in scolding him. Because he's enjoying time working with me. Because...he's trying.
Is he really trying? Yes. Is he really helping? No. Most definitely not. But I thank him anyway. In the end, the only reason I'm including him, the only reason I'm going out of my way to recognize his contribution to society is to reward him for trying, and encourage him to try again. Maybe next time he'll actually be of some assistance...
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Have you ever met a celebrity? Maybe not like Justin Timberlake. Just a celebrity in your own mind will suffice-of course excluding yourself... I've had the opportunity to have conversations with people who in my mind are celebrities. They're not pop stars or regulars on "E" network programming. But they are in some way bigger than my regular life. And for the most part they've all been gracious, acting like their day has been improved by their meeting me that day, or our conversation. And I think that as "normal people" we all accept that as a token of our icon's graciousness, not of genuine edification. I mean, they haven't necessarily gotten much out of the meeting as much as they have learned over time that the collective value of those experiences keeps careers floating and dynamic. Right? And we expect that from our celebrities.
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When I want to really think I mow. Sometimes, I just have to mow because the snakes are building towers to the sky in the tall grass, and I sort of resign myself to that fact by baiting myself with the prospect of some good "think" time. But I also have a rule that mowing deserves a beer if done thoroughly. Regardless of time. One mow=one beer. Period. So there's that too. Used to be One Mow = 3 cigarettes and 1 beer. But we quit smoking, so it's just beer. I guess that's still a pretty good deal. But I'm digressing. Again.
So there I am, mowing along the edge of my lawn, marveling at how the edge always stays long no matter how I track the mower. It just lays down flat and then I drive over it, and it sort of looks up to see that I've passed and begins to stand up and do it's thing again: look sloppy.
So there I am. And I realize how my boy's "helping" is both similar and different from how I am asked to partner with God!
I thank my boys for their help because I want them to feel like they are appreciated, and I do this in spite of the fact that they are actually slowing me down, and usually create MORE work to be done. So, the thanks I give is sort of like a down-payment on some future return of actual assistance that is all but invisible on the very distant horizon.
The celebrities in our lives thank us, they woo us, they tell us they "love us" constantly, but mostly because that is what they need to do to maintain a steady stream of cash. Or good will. or whatever. But I don't suppose they actually attach all that much value to those relationships. Do you?
But Jesus tells his disciples, "I call you my friends" as they linger on an after-dinner walk. He says that "there is no greater love is there than when a man lays down his life for his friends."
And that is all sort of secondary to the thought that I was having as I attempted to mow the long grass that lays down across my sidewalk. God attaches so much value to the work that we do that it actually has an impact on the holiness of HIS name. It is for the sake if HIS name, HIS image and reputation, if you can swallow that, that He causes us to walk in paths of righteousness (check out Psalm 23).
He attaches so much value to our work that He accuses the stiff necked of blemishing the value of His name to the gentile nations! Now stick with me for a second while I walk myself through that. He proclaims through the prophet Ezekiel that "It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone." (Ezekiel 36) This is a sort of negative example of what I'm trying to say, but what I recognized is this: What we do, how we live actually has an impact on God. In this example, it was more bad than good, but none-the-less, it made a difference to Him.
God intends our lives to be purpose-filled. We are made for special purposes. Whether we think they are special or not is sort of up to us, but to God, it's already been decided: We can do what he wants and actually bless Him, adding to His Kingdom and fulfilling our divinely ordained purposes. And He is genuinely pleased by this. Remarkable?!! I wrote in a prior post that sometimes I get that feeling-Who is man that anyone should give a damn? But God attaches value to my work. Astounding. So much so that it affects the sheen or tarnish on His very Name! His very Glory! Even as I write this I find it so remarkable. And yet it is what He says.
He leads me in paths of righteousness,
For His Name's sake...
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