At this time of year God begins to speak to me through my lawnmower. Let me explain.
At Glynde Place we have big fancy cylinder mowers with rollers back and front which create lines in the grass. This means there is no room for error, if you don’t mow in a straight line it will show! Most professional gardeners will tell you the way to get a straight line is to start along an existing straight edge and the you will have a straight line you can work from. The way to keep your lines straight after that is to focus on the end of the line you’ve just done and keep the Mower parallel to that line, keep looking ahead, don’t look down or if you do look down make sure it is only for a brief moment.
God began to speak to me as I mowed my straight(ish) lines (they’re never perfect no matter how hard you try). Keep your focus on Jesus, keep your eyes fixed on him, don’t look down at your circumstances or if you do only long enough to put them in perspective. Keep your eyes on the prize which is an eternity in his glorious presence. It’s only when we have our eyes fixed on him that we stay on the straight and narrow way, take our eyes off Him and we begin to stray off line.
When mowing long straight lines sometimes you struggle to see the end of the line. In that case focus on a point in the distance that you can see and aim for that, the rest of the line becomes clearer as you move forward. The same can be said in our spiritual lives, sometimes it’s hard to see clearly where are lives are headed. Just keep moving forward trusting in Jesus that with each step you will see a little clearer the way ahead.
Also going from sun into shade can be tricky. When we move from light into dark it can be disconcerting and we lose sight of where the line is. In those cases I tend to stop, refocus until the line comes back into view. In our spiritual lives when we go through dark periods we can sometimes become disorientated and our focus is not on Jesus but on our pain and difficulties. Stop, be still, refocus your gaze on Him, eventually you’ll move out of the shadows and back into the light and everything will be clear again.
There is a well known hymn which goes like this:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in his wonderful face
And the things of the world will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.
PHILIPPIANS 3:14 KJV I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
