I hauled three garbage cans of yard waste to the curb for the county to pick up. It seems that every week we have up to four garbage cans filled with weeds, clippings, and twigs to haul to the curb. Where in the world does all this stuff come from? Our yard isn’t large! Of course, we’ve just returned from living near Julie in Mexico for a couple of months, so we’re catching up with no maintenance having been done for the two months.
We’ve covered a significant part of the front and back yards with bark and pine mulch in an effort to create a “minimum maintenance” yard. The problem is that leaves and twigs fall on the mulch, which require picking them up, and weeds still poke through it, which require pulling or spraying. So our “minimum maintenance” yard still needs maintenance!
I shouldn’t be surprised. Yards require maintenance, so does the house sitting in the middle of our small lot, so does the car parked in the garage.
What also requires maintenance is the relationship of the two people who live in the house (Diann and me). Then too, what both of us consider to be the most important relationship in our lives, our relationship with God, also requires maintenance.
All of life is a spinning top and needs regular attention to keep it spinning, to keep it from slowing, wobbling, and eventually coming to a stop. The temptation is to let things go, let things drift, let things slide.
Regular maintenance on any aspect of life takes vigilance. We can easily miss the slow but persistent deterioration from the way things were before. Regular maintenance also requires effort, it’s rarely easy.
Maintenance on the material like a yard, house, car, etc. is important but shouldn’t be the highest priority; all of this is replaceable. The two highest priorities should be the maintaining and nurturing of our relationship with God and with those within our sphere of influence. When we also regularly examine ourselves we are in a good place to do both.
Our yard is looking better, it just took some maintenance. Now, about those parts of life that are more important than the yard…
Jesus to the Christians at Ephesus, “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen!” (Revelation 2:4-5a).
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