It's not a glorious task, to be for sure. It requires rubber boots, gloves, and some determination. So, I grabbed a rake and a shovel, aired up the tire on the wheelbarrow, and got started. And you know what? It wasn't so bad. In fact, it got me thinking.
Cleaning up my yard after a long winter is a lot like looking into my life and finding a bunch of stuff that has accumulated there that doesn't really belong. Just like my dog does in my yard, life tends to drop a lot of (insert word here) in my life that just stinks things up. If left laying around, pretty soon the place is uninhabitable. Every time you try to walk around, you step in it. Try to have people over, and everyone gets this funny look on their face. Somebody's got to clean things up. That somebody is me.
So as I was cleaning up the yard, I did some looking around in my soul. And sure enough, I found some (insert word here) laying around that needed to be shoveled out. I won't go into details--I don't need to. We all have it. Pride, anger, self-pity, greed . . . Whatever. It's all the same. It's just (insert word here). It needs to go.
And as I was dumping wheelbarrow loads of old leaves, dead grass, and doggie presents into the compost pile, I had to smile. That (insert word here) was going to become great fertilizer. I was going to put it back in my yard, or my garden, and it would make the flowers and vegetables grow stronger, more beautiful, more bountiful.
Isn't that the way it goes in life? The (insert word here) that life leaves us, if cleaned up and put in the right place, just makes us stronger. It makes us grow. It makes us more productive. Cleaning it up is no fun, but living in the middle of it is even worse. And, in the wonder of God's Creation, it becomes something that just makes us better.
So, as you are out in your yard this Spring, take some time to look around your heart. See if there aren't some stinking piles that need scooped up and dealt with. You just might be surprised at what it will grow.
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