[ShyStrings]

Upon raking leaves in a hurricane (a common army task it seems)

Its amazing the level of frustration inherent in such a situation. The classic, "God must be rolling on the floor laughing at us now" kind of thing. You snatch up four leaves, and seven more have landed before you can blink. Amazing. You rake for an hour to clear about three square feet. And there, as you lean on your useless, idle rake... wipe your brow... kicking yourself for wasted time and pointless effort... right in that delicate moment your buddy, in his infinite wisdom, lends his two cents... "Ya know... its windy out here."

After teaching him the repercussions of such idle chatter, you realize jsut how deep that statement goes. You do know that its windy out. You do know that no matter how many leaves you chase after, how many problems you try to fix, there are plenty more to be found. And there will be more on the way.

This is jsut the sort of ridiculous behaviour that this world encourages... work hard, look out for yourself, help others if you are helped by doing so. What about praying to a God that created the wind, the leaves, and the tree branch you are trying to break over your buddy's head. That is exactly where we need to be, though... on our knees before an awesome God. Eventually we learn not to fight what we can't control, we learn that we can't last at a furious pace trying to alter things on our own. Eventually we learn that if we would be patient, if we would submit to God, then the winds of His grace will sweep away all these temporary troubles... like standing still and letting the leaves blow into your bag, ready to be discarded and forgotten.



Sometimes I dont really polish these off, because I dont want to miss the point or forget what God has impressed on me, so they are a bit rough. Never was much of a writer, but enjoy it nonetheless...

-shy-

[stillgrowin']

I do think you are a great writer. Even if there are some rough edges, the Holy Spirit can smooth them out as we read. What you are saying is so true. Sometimes we waste too much time on meaningless toils when what we really need to do is get down on our knees and seek God. I really enjoyed reading it and it will help me when I reflect on what I did today (most of which was posting posts here). Next time you go raking on a windy day, you will know exactly how I feel about posting here: I post 3, only to find your 7 new posts. I should just forget about the contest and put God first.