Hay Field Hope

At right: the only full photo I have of the home I lived in from fourth grade through adulthood, on a rare snowy day.
Imagine reading an honest “home for sale” ad: “Abused rental house. Oversized lot with knee-high grass. Interior damage from renter who used family bathroom to bathe goats for showing.” That describes the home my father bought in early 1957, after moving our family from southern California to western Washington. Though it had good “bones” as a brick home, it had suffered neglect. That helped bring the price down to something he could afford, if we lived frugally.

I still remember him attacking the hay-field of a front yard. This was before “weed-wackers” with their spinning cutting lines. All he had was his reel-style gas lawn mower. He’d chew into it a few inches, then retreat. Chew, retreat. My sister and I raked the mess into piles.

Looking back, I wonder how he did it. My mother, an asthmatic, couldn’t help much with the weeds. But Dad wasn’t afraid to take on a challenge when he had a vision of the end result. Eventually, my parents lived there more than twenty years. After their deaths, when I moved home to empty it out and settle the “estate,” the lawn-mowing fell to me. As I pushed that old machine around, I had renewed respect for my dad’s hard work.

I think there’s a lesson here for any of us in facing big challenges. I’m reminded of King David’s advice to his king-in-training son Solomon, charged with building a magnificent temple in Jerusalem. “Be strong and courageous,” David counseled, “and do the work” (1 Chronicles 18:20). David didn’t say, “Wish upon a star” or “Let blessings just drop in your waiting lap.” He said to link faith and deliberate action.

As I think over my life, I realize no goal came easy. Some quarters at college took all the grit I could muster. Then I had jobs that stretched my skills, endurance, and longsuffering. Marriage? More stretching. Pregnancy and childbirth? Well, don’t believe the tabloids that proclaim, “Woman gives birth to 24-pound baby while taking her afternoon nap.” And raising children? Think of paddling a canoe with somebody jumping on board.

God didn’t create us to sit around looking at the grass to be mowed. He also promises help for those intimidating tasks. David continued: “Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished.” And 1 Corinthians 3:16 says the temple is now us: “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?”

Got a long-neglected goal to achieve? A calling from God? What’s your excuse? Remember my dad, diligently hacking away at a suburban hay field because he knew this could be a home to be proud of. And it was.