Yep, you read this correctly....mowing in the dark. I will preface this by saying my goal was to go running while my middle child was at football practice. However, I arrived to find twice as many people at the fields and some sort of game going on as well, no running for me.
So when we arrived home I decided there was just enough light to mow the front yard, get some excersize in and all. Just, just enough light....right? HA! Nope, by the time I got going it was dark and I was mowing by the romantic light of the street lamp. :) Didn't even finish the whole yard. But, in those moments of mowing in the dark I learned a few things....
It isn't easy to see the path I was making in the dark....I need a bit of light to figure out if I'm in line with my line, so to speak. This immediately made me think of my own life. How often do I try to walk to a place I can't see...His word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path(Psalm 119:105). If I'm all about me and what I can do and I can't be about Him and the amazing things He does!
It is easy to end up going over the same area several times just to make sure I've covered all areas. It makes the job twice as long! Sometimes I get so carried away with stuff I find I'm just doing the same busy work over and over again....if I'm not asking the Lord to guide my steps and let me know if each step, each moment, each choice is where He is leading, I'm just wasting time trying to make sure I've covered all the "right" areas.
I did try to see what I'd done after I turned the machine off and put it away but you know what....it's really hard to see the details in the dark! I tried to take some pictures, they did show one area I missed, but the others didn't show much detail either. I was reminded that in the morning when the sun begins to shine, we will all see how I did. There won't be any way to hide any mistakes. The bonus to this is that I can then fix the areas that were missed, but only when the light is shining. :) But often, in life, we think we don't need to fix anything, we can just keep hiding. We rush, we fill life with stuff with no greater purpose, we slap on a smile, we hide behind a mask, we are sarcastic, or hurtful, or we just refuse to engage. We can't hide behind stuff forever....Luke 8:17 says this, "For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light." Letting His light shine makes my pitiful attempts to do things my way seem ridiculous...because they are! But every time He shows me another area I have been holding on to, I am humbled to see Him working in me...He loves me that much!
So my take away from my silly little plan? I need His light....I need it constantly, and I need the reminder that working in the dark doesn't work so well. I think we all need the reminder that we need to be willing to toss aside our masks, our defense mechanisms, our pride (it often comes down to pride), our goals, our fears, our plans, our busy work and give all of it up to the One whose plans will always be better, greater, more amazing than anything we could have ever imagined!
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