It was that time again. Time to clean up the poop in the backyard. With three dogs, you can imagine how much I look forward to this. For a long time, we used a shovel to pick it all up, but a few years ago, I bought one of those pooper-scoopers from Wal-mart, and let me tell you – the best $10 I ever spent! With a simple squeeze of the handle, the two claws grab and lift up the mess my dogs left behind. Awesome! But as easy as the pooper-scooper makes the job, it’s still a stinky, sweaty job – especially when it’s 100 degrees outside.
This weekend, I noticed how the drought had caused the grass
to become brown and flat. Without the
lush green grass, the little “piles” where much easier to see and pick up. As I worked across the yard and the sweat began
dripping down my back, I realized picking up the poop in my backyard was a lot
like cleaning up the poop in my own life.
When the grass in green and full, the poop is still there,
it’s just harder to see. Hidden beneath the tall abundant blades, it’s often
not discovered until stepped in. But during
this season of drought, there’s really no place for it to hide – it’s pretty
obvious where the poop lies, and when it’s time to clean it up.
What if that’s the point of the seasons in our own
lives? What if the “drought” seasons are
God’s way of helping us to see the “messes” in ourselves? Not so we feel overwhelmed, but so we can
truly see the spots that need to be cleaned up?
Maybe these are the ones we were trying to hide beneath our own blades
of grass, or maybe spots of which we aren’t even aware.
In David’s psalm, he asks God to search his heart – to test
him and know his thoughts, and to see if there is any offensive way in
him. David’s desire was to be close to
God, to rid his heart of anything that would keep him from God’s presence. He asks God to lead him in the way of
everlasting.
If our desire is like David’s – to be close to God – must we
not also ask God to reveal to us anything that is offensive? To search us and know us, and reveal to us
things we must confess to Him? Must we
not also be confident of this, that he who began a good work in us will carry
it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Phil 1:6)? For our God is good and faithful.
The Spirit does not reveal to us areas in our lives that we need to change, He reveals areas in
our heart that God wants to change. Areas that can only be “picked up” by
Him. Our job is to confess those things
to Jesus and ask Him for the strength to overcome. It is only by His power, grace, and mercy
that the “messes” are cleaned up.
Seasons of drought can be some of the most difficult seasons
in our life. But if the drought reveals
the things keeping me from a flourishing relationship with my Savior, I understand
the “reason for the season”. Maybe it’s
during those times that God is using a “pooper-scooper” in me and at the end of
the season, I can thrive and bloom for Him, with nothing hiding underneath.
Dear Jesus,
In Your Precious Name,
Amen
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