confessions of a lazy mower, pt. 1

I want to confess:

I'm a lazy mower.

I mow my lawn not nearly as often as I should.  Every year I try and convince myself that "this will be the year" that I keep up with it.  But then spring rolls around, then summer, and then... well... my lawn ends up looking like a hayfield.

There she is to the left - my poor mower, plugged up with about 3 weeks worth of a deadly mixture: 50% dead grass from previous overgrowth, and 50% dead grass from the latest overgrowth.  I bet my mower died about 15 times tonight just because she couldn't spit the grass out fast enough.

And yes, my mower is a "she."  Don't ask me why.

Why do I find myself at this point every summer?  Because of a different deadly mixture: 50% busyness, and 50% neglect.

I'll have a long workday, come home tired of the to-do's, and would rather just check out for a bit.  Ah, the voice of busyness.

Of course, the lawn scolds me from beyond the picture window in the living room.  But, "I'm too tired.  I need some rest.  It's good to spend some time with the family.  I'll get to it tomorrow."  And there's the voice of neglect.

Eventually these two voices will have captured your ear so long that they've got you dreading the day when you know that you'll simply have to stop listening to them and face the consequences - in my case, extending what should be a 45 minute job into a several hour project spanning two, maybe 3 days, involving mowing, trimming, raking, bagging, and most likely a trip to the dump because my yard waste can is already full.

It's hard not to listen to these voices, and even harder not to submit to them.  The minute you've drowned out the one, it seems like the other is in your ear.

I can hear these two voices singing these deceptive duets in a lot of areas of my life.  "You're too busy to be disciplined; cut yourself a break."  "You're so far off track already; what's another day?"

These areas of my life where busyness and neglect are singing over me are also shrouded in a dark haze of my own making.  I try to both hide them and hide from them [shame].  Maybe because I'm not looking forward to that day in which I'll have to deal with them [fear].  Maybe because I'm embarrassed to let others see them [image management].  Maybe because I don't want others to feel obligated to help me out with messes that I know I and I alone created [pride].

Who knew that a lawn could be such a hotbed for all kinds of sin?

But I'm taking a good first step.  And I'm not talking about the hour and a half of mowing/raking that I put in tonight.

I'm confessing.

Confession brings light to the darkness.  It brings into the light the areas of your life that you'd rather just let remain in your secret thoughts and your secret (weak? unanswered? half-hearted?) prayers.

Confession forces you to conclude the same thing about yourself that God's Law has already concluded about you.

Confession closes the gap between what you're telling yourself about your life and how you're actually living it.

Confession helps you to forsake the path that you had been previously stumbling down.

Confession reorients you towards the Light.

Confession reminds you that you are broken, but that your brokenness no longer has the right to rule you.

Confession before Christ and a trusted friend helps you to find and embrace forgiveness.

Confession lightens the load.

Part 2 to follow:

How do you react when someone you know decides to confess?

big vs. small

I came across these two passages of Scripture today - two very different responses of worship.

From Mark 12:

41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.

 43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on."

Then from Mark 14:

3 While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.

 4 Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, "Why this waste of perfume? 5 It could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor." And they rebuked her harshly.

 6 "Leave her alone," said Jesus. "Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. 8 She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. 9 I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."

One response was very simple, small, understated, unassuming, and inexpensive by most people's standards.  You could describe it as reverent.  The other was bold, extravagant, edgy, and expensive by anyone's standards.  You could describe it as raucous.

But Jesus delights in both... instead of pitting one against the other, or favoring the one as closer to what God desires than the other.

Though these responses of worship look vastly different on the surface, they do have one thing in common:

Both were reckless.

I think we'd do well to stop pitting worship responses against one another, contrasting one with the other, or debating the merits of one over the other.  As long as the response is as reckless as the love that has prompted it, we can't really go wrong.

was Jesus easily offended?

Would LOVE to hear your reactions to that question above.