Simple Thoughts Simple Prayers
Thoughts, Reflections, Inspirations, and Prayers
Simple Thoughts Simple Prayers
Unpredictable Life
We'll explore James 4 from the Bible, about doing the good we know we should, despite tomorrow's unpredictability.
This is simple thought, simple prayers. Here's a simple thought. I like mowing the grass. There's just something about that smell. You know the smell. I mean it's good in the summer, but in the spring I mean it just smells like spring. If I said what a spring smell like, that's what a lot of people would say. It smells like life. Even though you're cutting something which is weird, kind of paradoxical, it smells like life and you breathe it in deep and then you throw in some sunflower seeds into the mix and into your cheek, literally, and throw a good audiobook on the headset and what you have is an hour of blissful escape. But that's not even what I like best about mowing the grass. What I like best about mowing the grass is the certainty if you keep the mower engaged, it cuts, no questions asked. You walk this way, it cuts this way. You walk that way, it cuts that way.
Speaker 1:In a topsy-turvy world where death and taxes are said to be the only guarantees, it's nice to be able to cut diamond diagonal lines in a freshly mown lawn. I mean Benjamin Franklin would have added it to his list had he seen it. But stop the presses, the British are coming. Rome is burning. The dam has burst. Whatever kind of cliche of mayhem, it applies to what happened to me a great miscalculation in parenting. I let my two-year-old join me in mowing the lawn. How it happened is this I wanted to mow the lawn, my wife wanted to be an active part in my son's life, so I chucked a stone at some birds. Right, I mean, the birds were fine. My sense of control was the only casualty here in what I mean is I, two birds, one stone, like I could. I can do this, I can figure out both things, I can get my way and a piece of my wife and it'll all work out. So what I did was brilliant, right, I set my son up with his little John dear lookalike toy mower in the yard and I began cutting the grass, encouraging him to play act the same thing you mow over there, dad, I mows over here. It'll be perfect, we'll get the lawn mowed, will hang out, everyone will be happy. And it worked for nine seconds. And then he ran over and tried to touch the mower. I think the part of the mower with particular interest for him was the blades, the worrying blades that would chop him to bits. That's kind of what he seemed to be groping towards, and so, of course, I killed the mower. I stopped it and he just smiled at me. And then he played with the wheels for a while and then he told me that this was indeed a lawn mower, as if I hadn't figured that out yet. Then he started pushing the starter button, which I wouldn't allow to be engaged, and then I had another. Like epiphany, I said hey, hey, here's an idea, buddy, I figured out that my mower actually only works when both hands of yours are on your mowers. Maybe you should just jog on over there, grab your mower and this thing will start up and we can get going again. And it worked for nine seconds, and this is how it went. It took me an hour to mow half of my backyard in approximately 462, nine second bursts. We walked in after this holding hands and him talking about how fun it was to mow.
Speaker 1:This whole episode made me think of this verse in James, chapter 4 from the Bible. Basically, it says listen up, those of you who say you are going to this city or that city to make money, blah, blah, blah, blah. This is my own translation. The blah blah, blah is what we all do. Tomorrow I'm going to X is what we say. Next year we're going to Y on vacation to do Z, and I tell you more about it. But I'm at the end of hypothetical letters. But that's what we do. We just plan and plan and plan all these future hypothetical things. We all do this. The future is set, it is assumed, it is certain, it is death, it is taxes, it is straight, diamond, diagonal lines and freshly mown lawns.
Speaker 1:The passage then goes on and says to these planning types, to us, you don't even know what will happen tomorrow. You Now, whether you agree with the Bible or whether you like the Bible or not, it has a really good point here and we're all living that point right now. We don't know, we don't Like. This season of life shows us that we don't know. I mean, you could say, well, I'm a prepper and I have like a bunch of jars of applesauce or whatever preppers have. I prepared for it, but you didn't know exactly when it was going to happen, exactly how it was going to happen. We just don't know. So what do we do with that? Well, the passage concludes this way there's a few more verses, but then the conclusion of that is if anyone then knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin or wrongdoing. If anyone knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it's sin for them. I love that we don't know what life we have left, nor what is going to happen tomorrow, or in an hour or in nine seconds. So what's the answer? Well, according to this passage, the answer is goodness. The answer is love. You don't know what tomorrow holds, so today, do the good things you're supposed to do. You don't know what the next minute holds, so in this minute that you have right now, do as much good as you can Love with it.
Speaker 1:I wanted with nearly every fiber of my being to yell at my son while we mode. I wanted to be lost, to leave me alone. Go find your mom. I wanted him to see the logic and the process I was engaged in, but perhaps he wanted me to see something else. That nothing is certain, and I never knew when his sprinting form was going to lop up to the mower, to stop my progress and invite me into progress of a different time, to invite me into goodness and to relationship and to care.
Speaker 1:Putting off my own agenda, putting off my own goals, putting off my own plans for the good right in front of me. So I just want to spend a second and pray for that. God, we don't know, we don't. I pretend I know. I pretend that I have control over all these things. I pretend I know exactly how my retirement is going to pan out in a few decades. I can't even mow my lawn without unforeseen interruption. I don't know.
Speaker 1:So, whatever you give me right in front of me, allow me to see the good in it and do the good in it. Allow me to see opportunity for love today. I don't know, this probably isn't my last day on the earth, but if it is, let me just carpet DM. Let me just seize life, seize the day, seize the good. Let me love my neighbor. Let me be kind to someone. Let me not blow my top because I don't get to do my plan, but instead embrace my son. Let me realize that the world doesn't ebb and flow with my own planning. God, give me a heart to see. Give me patience, give me courage. Let me walk in the good today. Let me be kind to someone. Let's just seize life and become the 9600s. Let us raise high. Let we become the 9600. Let's raise high, let's get high.