Just a little something to collect my thoughts. Just a little place to be real. Life is sweet. Life is hard. And life is everywhere in between. This is where i share pieces (sometimes very raw) of this journey that is my life . . .

Monday, July 5, 2010

Use Your Tools

As I prepared to attack my yard that had become a jungle with a week of rain, God had more than grass cutting planned. The two hours of battle against weeds turned into a lesson from God and Life 101. I fondly remember God placing someone in my life who regularly reminded me to “use my tools”. That got hammered into my head but today took me to the advanced course. So maybe it was God and Life 201! So here goes . . .



Lesson One: Just having the tools in our possession is not enough. That is a review from God and Life 101. I have an awesome lawn mower, weed eater, and edger. I also have hands, gloves and shears. But if they just sit in my garage (or on the end of my arms) they are useless. A step further however is that sitting them in the midst of the jungle that is my yard is just as helpful.



Lesson Two: Some tools require preparation and work prior to being able to use them. My lawn mower has a great feature that allows for a quick and easy key start. No matter how often you turn that key if you neglected to charge it, there will be no magical start. This is much like how we need to continue to “charge” our minds and fill our hearts daily with Gods word and love. I am reminded of the importance of daily times of gearing up for the battles to come each day. Also if you leave your tools stored away for a while without use it takes much more work to get them into working order again. Yet another benefit of regular use and maintenance.



Lesson Three: Some tools are easy enough to use without much assistance. Others need more guidance. Never having a yard before, all of the tools were somewhat foreign to me. My first try at the lawn mower started out without much difficulty. I couldn’t get it started the first time so I eventually broke down and asked my neighbor for a little assistance. He got it started for me and I was good to go. I was far from being a professional landscaper but I got my yard mowed. This time I got it started on my own and hopefully improved a bit so as I continue I am sure to continue to improve. But it started with asking for help. Not personally a fan of that! But without my yard would be even more ridiculous!



Then there is the weed eater and the edger. Now I am not one to like to ask for help but those are two things that I need help with. After trying to use them unsuccessfully I decided to read the instructions. Guess you should probably start out with that but I have not always been one to do things the easy way. God knows me so he is not surprised but he directed me to the instruction book! I was educated on how to utilize them but that just wasn’t enough so I had to use a different tool (to be discussed in the following lesson). I have come to realize that this will involve actual teaching, possibly multiple times. That is the benefit of walking in community. Sometimes you just need someone to help you walk out what you are learning and sometimes the battles are so intense you need them just to stand.



Lesson Four: So with no success with the tools to make edging and demolishing weeds easier I decided to use the tools that I do know how to use. I am reminded that there have been times when not being able to use the tools indicated and created to make the work to be done with ease, has been where I have benched myself. Turns out that if you aren’t quite ready to use those tools or your learning is in process, there are tools that we have been equipped to use that will work. Just as a 3 year old would be more prone to use a tricycle, a 10 year old a bicycle and a 17 year old a car. So maybe I am not to the big leagues yet and that is okay. I was more productive using shears to edge my yard by hand then the on part of my yard that I attempted to use the edger on. The same with the weeds, my hands proved to be a more effective tool for me in the attack of the weeds.



Lesson Five: Don’t give up! Yeah I know that’s like a freebee on the exam but during this time in my life I have found myself very frustrated by the inability to find those teachers that can teach me how to graduate to the next set of tools. VERY FRUSTRATED! I know that ultimately God will teach and provide but I also know that discipleship is very important. So until that is provided for I will use my hands and feet to the best of my ability and God will bless the rest!

No comments:

Post a Comment