I am blessed to be living in the northern hemisphere, where the temperatures are rising and that sweet summertime energy is coming back. All the ‘yard dad’s’ are out here manicuring their lawns to perfection. Meanwhile, our lawn started the season burnt to a crisp. Like, dead dead.
My husband put many hours of work into our lawn and with the help of some well-timed rain, our lawn ended up the best on the street! We got to enjoy our pretty lawn for a few weeks, until we re-discovered the joys of our American Basswood Tree.
This giant tree that provides so much shade and a beautiful view out the living room window, drops thousands of little helicopter seeds for a few weeks each summer and we are the only ones on the block to have one of these trees. So, when everyone else’s yards look perfectly manicured, we are raking six garbage bags of leaves up every few days.
The beauty is, after a few weeks of hard work, we will get back to enjoying our majestic tree in all its glory.
Comparing Seasons
While we were prepared to be raking up leaves in a few months when all the trees changed colors, this summer yard work was unexpected. It felt unfair in many ways to be doing the work and not being able to enjoy the work we had already done.
I find myself, and maybe you do as well, thinking of God as owing me something for my effort. Not seeing God as a genie in a bottle but the, “Hey God, I did a few sit-ups, where are my abs?” type of attitude.
This often comes up when I compare my life to others and am frustratingly sitting at the feet of Jesus asking why do I not get a reward for all my suffering when everyone else seems to have it easy. Or when I extend kindness to someone who wronged me and do not receive an apology in return.
I fall into the prosperity gospel way of thinking without realising it. While I think that I am humbling myself and living the way that Christ wants me to, I am just misusing His kindness to motivate my doing hard things.
I compare myself to others without considering what it took for others to get where they are in life and ignoring the fact that God still has a plan for my life. I just sit back and wait for God to have pity on me to make my life easier.
Cross-stitch Christianity
We understand that following Jesus does not mean that we are guaranteed an easy life. We do, however, strive for an easy life – it is only human to do so. In order to justify the expectations that we place on God to rescue and reward us, we misuse His word frequently.
The Bible is a beautiful, Holy work that we have an immense privilege to be able to read and meditate on. To have God’s Word in our own written language is an immense gift that I often take for granted. Therefore, when I think of how easily we culturalize Christianity through pulling verses out of context to put on house décor and stickers, I am deeply sad.
I often quoted to God the verses in Psalms that promise that He hears our prayers and grants us the desires of our hearts. I pulled those verses out of the context that the Psalmist originally wrote to, “remind God what He promised me.”
While I believe that reminding God of His promises and goodness takes a great display of faith, I do believe we undermine our faith if we take His words out of the context in which He said them. Christianity takes great faith, increasingly so each new year, and I believe that God is calling us to a deeper faith.
Just Rake the Leaves
So, while I wish that after doing hard work to grow stronger in my faith and into a better human would result in a month of ease, it does not always work that way. The same way that we worked so hard on saving the lawn only to rake leaves for weeks, sometimes life just gets harder after it has been hard.
God does not promise that life will be cruisy, or that our yards will be perfect, but He promises that He will always be there. While we are raking leaves, He is there. While we are crying alone, He is there. While our people are hurting, He is there. So, just rake the leaves and enjoy His presence regardless of the season that you find yourself in.
Petro Lancaster is a school counselor in-training and a newlywed wife to her husband, Ansen, who is a worship pastor at their church in Ohio. Originating from South Africa and growing up in New Zealand has given Petro a love for all things sport and travel, and a heart for the importance of community. Writing is Petro’s way of making sense of the world around her and expressing the words God places on her heart.