Mowing the Lawn and a Summer Breeze

The title above doesn't sound all to bad. Working hard in the yard but having a nice cool summer breeze to assist you. Well, you obviously have not done much yard work if you think that! In renting a house one of the many responsibilities is mowing the lawn with what has been given to you to mow with. Thankfully I did not have to learn how to purchase a lawn mower. Not so thankfully I was blessed with a legit push lawn mower. You see, in the past I have helped my dad mow the lawns. He would drive the lawn mower and I would use the push mower. This was however 4 years ago and further into the past... The push mower at home was great for a tall lanky girl like me because you could control the speed of the motor that helped with the push. SOOOooo for fun you go as slow as you would like or you can push the speed so you are jogging around the lawn. Just picture it for a min. A tall girl with brown hair (pigtails or pony tail) jogging around the lawn with the mower. oky idk about you but i had a silly pic in my mind. :) 

ANYWAYS... I enjoyed the yard work. Im outside, being productive, helping my dad. Well here I am in a house where we take turns mowing the lawn. I stepped up to the plate to mow the lawn this weekend! I'm actually excited to contribute to the overall appearance of the house. So I go and spend 15 awkward confusing minutes figuring out how to start the mower...there is a primer button to push 3X, the string/cord you yank is by the handle, and, what I correctly guessed to be the lever to start the blades, was a simple 1/3 inch metal lever with a cord draping down to the engine. So I finally figure out that you have to push the primer 3X, then yank the cord WITH the metal blade starter pulled all the way back in order to start the engine. And off I go! 

sort of...

Like I said before this was a legit push mower... I had to push the little red grass eating machine over every bump, stick, root, dip, hill, ant hill, with as much effort as pushing a boulder up hill. Arms outstretched, legs stretched behind, pushing with all my might. Oky in all honesty I figured out that I could go backwards with the mower and the silly little pose of pushing a boulder uphill lasted only 1/3 of the yard HAHA. Once I figured out that i could steer the  mower by tillting the thing (it needs a name...) on the back wheels I was flying around the yard, at certain points, like in corners or around trees, I looked like a housemaid vacuuming the yard. You know forward at one diagonal, backward, forward at another diagonal, backward...

So back to the original topic! Mowing the lawn was not too bad and like I said before the addition of a summer breeze must have been nice... Maybe if there was a grass bag attached to the mower... but there was not. The lovely summer breeze took the lovely fresh cut grass and gently picked up the new clippings and threw it at my face with velocity and purpose! After another 15 minutes my whole right side, face, and front was covered in a variety of grass, dirt, weeds, and I think a candy wrapper (idk how!). Sooo in short I became quite filthy. 

One great thing about mowing the lawn is the ability to think:

1) Why do we mow lawns so frequently? is it from a social norm? it there much of a purpose? I understand not letting it get to the point of a jungle which attracts snakes, mice, frogs, bobcats, etc. 

2) why do people care so much about how their yard looks? our lawn has spots of pure weeds and dandelions. Why the focus on lawn beauty?

3)Why the effort to follow social norms if it makes us so dirty? 

4) What other social norms makes us dirty? literally or figuratively?

5) Why are we not as motivated to get dirty for something worth so much more such as God? Why are people afraid of getting out of their comfort zones and being vulnerable for God and spreading the Good News? Are they not the same people mowing lawns in their "wife beaters" white dirty shirts, becoming sweaty, not at all looking presentable yet outside for the world to see? 

I mow the lawn because it is an assigned chore for us to do and I love to contribute in anyway possible. I only want a place where people feel welcome to enter. Now I am settled and here in this house for a few years. I feel open and excited to see how God is going to use me. Where I need to go get dirty, because, as we noticed, getting dirty can create BEAUTIFUL results. How true is that?! Think literally with me: an artist covered in paint, a gardener covered in dirt, a mechanic working on cars covered in oil, I think we the list goes on and on if we think about it. A missionary in an orphanage, a woman helping at a pregnancy center, people serving at a soup kitchen, working/volunteering at a chemical dependency clinic. Im sure you can add to this.

Dirty actions can create beautiful results. And a summer breeze, though might feel good, will only make you dirtier... :P