I
don't have a large yard, certainly not by country
standards. By city standards, my yard is huge. Especially
by standards in my city of Salem. Our house faces
sideways to the yard, and sits on the lot line.
That means that our entire little parcel of a quarter
of an acre sits like a small park in front of our
house.
Old
silver maple trees shade our yard. They cool it
by 10 degrees on hot, humid summer days. But besides
the beautiful old trees, our yard is in desperate
need of some landscaping.
Our
first two years have been years of destruction.
Trees have been trimmed, and felled. A 16'x32' above
ground pool was removed because we did not use it,
and it simply had become a leaf collector.
I
am still in various stages of destruction, but now
we can begin some construction in the yard. I enjoy
the progress of landscaping the yard, but I find
that it moves far too slow, and requires maintenance
along the way.
Quickly
the yard heads down the unwelcome road of the combined
systems of disarray - entropy, overgrowth, invasion,
erosion, and dog poop. I love gardening, but at
times I tire of the struggle of "the curse."
I am learning that the garden is
a little like life. There are seasons of restoration
which require that I fight for every square inch
of area I wish to repossess.
When life falls apart, we are forced
to rebuild it inch by inch. Relationships are broken,
and need to be restored one kind word, and one patient
response at a time. Trust is lost, and must be rebuilt
one small action at a time. Our finances get out
of control, and are recovered one small payment,
and one small savings at a time.
Yes, it can be frustrating, but
there are times when the lesson I have learned in
my yard, becomes a lesson we must practice in life.
The restoration projects we have before us are worth
the hard labor, but often we must fight for every
square inch.
I suppose that you are waiting for
the moment of comfort, when I tell you that God
is going to completely deliver you from the struggle
against this curse. That could occur, but it doesn't
always happen that way. Do you know why? Because
God is calling you to be an overcomer. That means
you have to do some overcoming. You can start by
fighting for one square inch at a time. You'll find
that the struggle is worth the effort.
