A Habitable Place

I was inspired with this thought over the summer, but never made the time to sit down and write about it. I hope this will be an encouragement and challenge for all of us, and that it hits home to you as it did for me.

For the past few summers, I've been mowing lawns to earn some money. I mow for some of my neighbors, and even since we have moved to our new house, I still mow for some neighbors in our old neighborhood. One day, I was mowing in that neighborhood and one of my old neighbors approached me, asking if I'd be willing to mow their lawn. Their parents had been in Mexico and wouldn't be back for awhile, and no one had mowed the backyard. I agreed to do it and went over the next day. When I got there, I realized why they asked me to come mow. It looked as if it hadn't been touched in a couple of weeks (and around here, that's plenty of time for an unattended yard to turn wild).

It was a mess. Terribly overgrown, the grass was waist high in some places and knotted together in a tangled conglomeration of green. "How did it get like this?" I wondered to myself. It was neglected. The people who normally would have taken care of it were absent, and the yard was left to its own. Without the proper care, it turned into an almost irreversible mess. Recognizing the task ahead of me, I begrudgingly began working on the lawn, knowing it would take far longer than I had expected.

But, as I trimmed away and made several slow laps with a lawn mower struggling to churn through the masses of green weeds, I realized there was a spiritual lesson to be learned from this physical predicament. This place wasn't habitable for a family. Parents wouldn't want their children running around in such an overgrown place with bugs waiting to bite, and it certainly wouldn't be comfortable for a BBQ. It was simply a mess. Neither is a soul filled with the nastiness of sin and the webs of jealousy, anger, or other unclean things a habitable place for the Holy One to dwell.

It reminded me of the parable of the sower. Seeds fell among thorns and were choked out by the thorns and unable to grow (Luke 8:7). Imagine trying to find a flower in the midst of an overgrown, weed-filled yard. They would be choked out by the thorns. This is a literal example, but consider the fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), which happen to be very necessary for a Christian life. A life cannot simultaneously foster the growth of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, etc. while giving place for the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21). The fruits of the spirit will be choked out, just as the beauty of the lawn was hidden by the mess of overgrown weeds. The Bible likens the choked seeds to someone who goes along life's way and gets caught up with cares, riches, and pleasures of this life, and becomes unfruitful (Matthew 13:22, Luke 8:14). Instead of focusing the time and cultivation necessary in facilitating growth in the good things, time is wasted elsewhere. The fruits of the spirit, much like the literal fruits of the earth, is neglected and not brought to perfection.

Galatians 6:8 reads: "For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption,; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." The concept seems fairly simple, and in basic terms means that doing wrong will be rewarded with bad, and doing right will be rewarded with good. This can be applied to the neglect I mentioned earlier. Sowing neglect will FROM the neglect produce disappointment. But, being careful to keep up with particular things ensures that the result will be positive. Making time to learn the things in our life that God is teaching us, instead of putting them on the backburner, makes our efforts pleasing to God. The neighbors in this scenario were not sowing carefulness, but instead were sowing neglect. Fortunately (for them), I was there to reap the brunt of the disappointment (and tall grass) for them. ;)

However, being proactive in the things of God has its benefits, for sure. Ecclesiastes 3:13 reads: "And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God." Taking care of things in our lives and making sure they are presentable for God allows us to enjoy the fruits of our labor. Much like a well-maintained yard where you can enjoy a good cookout, a maintained life is going to be much more pleasant than one with unattended problems popping up at every turn. This is undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges, at least personally, in the Christian experience. God is faithful to teach us things and give us the tools to work past difficulties in our lives, but we have to maintain. Mowing the yard once each spring doesn't keep it looking nice and habitable for an evening cookout. It takes regular maintenance and hard work to keep up. Once God has given us a lesson or brought us through a trial, we still have to maintain what we have learned and make sure we don't let any sprouts of bitterness, anger, or any other evil fruit pop up in our life. Cut them off. Cast them away. Maintain. You'll be the beneficiary of a clean heart, just as the family who lives there is the primary beneficiary of a well-kept yard.

God also gives us each one different gifts. To some, it is singing. To some, exhortation. To some, helps. They are widely varying, but all essential components of who God intends for us to be. I Timothy 4:14 warns us to not neglect the gift in us. Don't let things of the world choke it out. Don't let the beauty be marred by neglecting to practice the gift or use it. Exercise it, and be an example of the believers in your life. Some neighborhoods have strict lawn codes, requiring that grass be a certain height and no taller. We don't want our life to look so drastically different from Christ's (who is our ultimate example) that people can't tell who we are representing. We especially don't want to cause God, figuratively, to admonish us that the grass in our yard is too long.

Romans 1:16 says "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth..." We don't want to be ashamed of such a wonderful gift. We don't want our yard to look so bad that we are too embarrassed to invite people over to see it. But, much more importantly, we don't want to be ashamed unto God for the condition of our souls. A common scripture, 1 Corinthians 3:16, says "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" God dwells in us. We want our lives to be acceptable to Him. We don't want to be embarrassed about how our life looks, and we certainly don't want to give place to works of the flesh and evil fruit in our life. If Jesus were coming to visit, we'd be sure every tall weed was trimmed, the grass was properly maintained, and that there was plenty of food for a cookout.

We want our souls, and our lives, to be a habitable place for the Holy One to dwell. Clean, trimmed, maintained, and pleasant. God is our ultimate judge, and we want to be worthy of the blessings He's waiting to give. Don't let your zeal for the Lord become overgrown. Cultivate and grow the desire to serve Him. We inhabit what we make for ourselves in our lives. It needs to be good enough for us and also pleasing for company. God is going to be there. Make it pleasing to Him.

Keep encouraged!