Driving home today I passed one of those immaculate yards. It's not very big. The house that sits on it is modest, possibly even invisible it is so "unimpressive." A little old lady lives there. I've never spoken to her, but having seen her many many times, I estimate she is close to ninety years old, if not older. On my numerous trips past her house, I have watched her shuffle her feet to her mail box or some other task in her yard. If by chance I had stopped and timed her, I bet it would take her over five minutes to "walk" a short distance of twenty yards. Today I drove by and watched her slowly shuffle around, picking up stray leaves that had fallen during last night's rain. Like I said, her yard was already spotless. It was just these three or four more leaves.
I wonder, is it easier to keep your yard immaculate the more time you have? Is it easier if you have been doing it longer? I know that size certainly matters.
Are our faith journeys easier as time goes by? The longer we journey, do we find it easier to be more thorough in picking up or dealing with those little things that litter our relationships with God? Do we discover that we WANT to be more thorough? If this is one of those process kinda things where we find we get better as time goes by, can we speed up the process? I bet by the time I'm ninety I'll know.
When is the right time?
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This past week I had coffee with the pastor of the church we're now
attending. I talked for about an hour straight, telling my story. All the
while he prov...
15 years ago
3 comments:
dlucks, I like your thoughts. Fanatics always trouble me no matter what they are fanatical about. I can see your positive spin on being an addict, but I need some help. Can you make the jump for me and talk a little more about Christian addict, because I assume you are referring to somebody who's really into the church thing.
dlucks, to answer your question, my fascination is not with yards. My fascination is with people's attention to them. This little old lady really stirred something in me. She can barely get around for crying out loud and there she was, trying to pick up a handful of leaves. Do I think she suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder? No. Do I think she has more time on her hands than she knows what to do with? Maybe. I do think she really wanted to get those leaves up though. For me, as I hinted to in my "About Me" section, what probably matters most to me is how to help people "WANT" to make God a major player in their lives.
BTW, I didn't mean to come off sounding snippy when I replied to your comment D. I recognize the sarcastic humor in your first question. My humblest and most sincere apologies for any unintended misfeelings.
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