PK’s
Ponderings
On Cutting Grass and Reading My Bible
(But
not at the same time!)
It
was a Saturday night, and the grass was about knee high,
and just daring me to get out there and cut it down. Usually, no big deal, but on this particular
Saturday night it also felt about 487°F.
Fortunately for me, God has blessed us with a riding lawn mower, and a
son who could help take care of the trim while I took care of the majority of
the yard in the comfort of riding. Now
this riding mower also has adjustable speed, and so I thought I would hurry up
the process by zipping around, beating the sun before it beat down on me too
badly.
Well,
I was about halfway done, or so I thought, when I looked a bit more carefully
to the area I had already covered. To my
amazement I saw several strands of taller grass still standing high and had to
go back over the work, slowing me down and increasing my time outside, which of
course did not please me.
I
decided to slow the speed setting down a bit, and to my surprise, I no longer
had any grass remaining high after I passed over it. It seemed that by slowing down, I was able to
accomplish a more thorough job, getting everything I needed the first time, and
not having to go back over again and again where I had already been.
As
is often the case when I am mowing the yard, my mind began to ponder and think,
fixating this time on the lesson I was learning, when the question came to me,
perhaps from the Lord Himself who wanted to redeem
even this moment for the good of my soul and the praise of His glory: What does this lesson have to do with how
I read my Bible?
The question struck me
hard and was one of those moments of divine serendipity. Indeed, there were some applicable
comparisons:
·
What speed
setting is my Bible reading set on?
·
How often have
I approached reading my Bible in terms of just getting it done?
·
Have I ever
been guilty of speeding through my Bible reading, in the ridiculous,
God-dishonoring, effort to save time?
·
How many
times, in reading my Bible too quickly, have I missed some important strands of
truth and personal application?
·
How many times
have I had to read a passage over and over to finally understand it for no
other reason than that I was reading too quickly?
·
Maybe if I
slow down when reading the Bible, I will be able to get everything out of a
passage that God intends for my edification!
David reminds us in Psalm
1:2-3 of the benefit of avoiding a mere speedy and superficial handling of the
Scriptures when, he says “But his delight
is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. [And for this reason,] He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields
its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does,
he prospers.” Indeed, there is no
shadow of hurrying, or worry about lean gleanings, with this advice from the
man who had a heart after God.
Now, in case you are wondering, “No” – I don’t always have these kinds of thoughts when riding my mower, otherwise, you’d see me riding around town on my little green machine more often! But thank the Lord that even in doing the needed and mundane, He can break in, speak, and draw us to Himself.
Perhaps the lesson that I learned that Saturday night is a lesson we all need to hear from time to time. Reading my Bible each day is not something to get done, but an opportunity to spend time with my sovereign God who loves me so and who, through His Holy Word, longs to reveal more of Himself and the relationship He has made possible through His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.
May God continue to have mercy on each of us as He grows us in His grace!
