Lawn Mowers, Learning and Jesus
Last week I found myself in an interesting situation, learning to use the church’s skid-steer riding lawn mower. I’ve been a lawn mower user for over forty years, and a riding mower driver for over thirty-five years; but I’ve never sat on a skid-steer machine until last Friday. Needless to say it was not a comfortable experience for me, or a pretty sight for anyone who might have witnessed it. I’m comfortable with machines and I’m usually quite proficient with using them. With my tools and machines I pride myself in learning and using the finer performance details and nuances they offer, so that I can have for myself (and share with others) a smooth and effective experience. Using a machine or a tool becomes for me something of an art form, whether that tool is a guitar, a cordless power drill, a leaf blower, or a riding lawn mower.
Well, last Friday’s experience on the skid-steer lawn mower was anything but smooth, deft, and effective. Rather than mowing my usual straight lines I was wiggling and weaving all over the yard. Rather than smoothly and fluidly rounding the yard’s curves I was bouncing herky-jerky through the turns. Rather than weaving effortless among the shrubs and trees I was tentatively lurching and lunging, fearful of damaging the machine or destroying a plant. It was anything but a comfortable experience for me (I really hope that not too many people witnessed it), but it was what I needed to be doing. I need to learn how to use the skid-steer riding mower, so that I can use it to mow and manage the wonderful, large, parsonage yard that we have here at Oakmont.
As I’ve reflected on my first skid-steer mowing experience, it has struck me that our life in faith is like this, too, if we’re really doing what Jesus calls us to do. I’m comfortable and smug while doing what I know how to do. I’m at ease and smooth-as-you-please when I’m soaking myself in things familiar and comfortable. But Jesus calls us – just like God called Abraham – to go out from our place of comfort so that others can know and experience the grace of God. “You will be my witnesses,” Jesus says in Acts 1:8, “in Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
It was probably an ugly thing to watch last Friday while I was mowing the church’s front lawn, looking like one of the three stooges on a unicycle. But does it really matter whether I was comfortable, or whether I looked smooth and artful while seated on the machine? Nope. Not at all. The lawn got mowed, and I did some learning.
Jesus has some work for you, too. Jesus offers learning opportunities for you, too. Let’s work, and learn, together.
Blessings,
Lawton
