Hoping

Hoping

4/4/13

We humans love to complete an assigned task and then walk away and believing that we never will have to address the issue again.  If it were that easy of a process then the world would not be in constant crisis mode, but when you deal with humans that option of completion is usually not an option.  So we trudge along dealing with problems that we have created in the past that we have not adequately settled.  Why do we continue this circle of events for so long, it is because mankind loves to keep things stirred up and the human mind was created to increase its knowledge and by doing so our world continues to decline into humanistic ways.  God does not operate in this manner and He has provided us with many examples of how to take care of our problems, but as we recognize from our history we continue to find many other ways of destroying His promise of peace and hope.

There is an old saying that goes like this “hope springs eternal.”  I remember the first time that I read this phrase and it was when I was in high school.  It was a picture of Garfield the Cat lying on his back and him being asleep.  His owner Jon was yelling at him because he had not gotten up out of his bed all day.  So, Garfield was thinking to himself this phrase and relating it to his desire to stay in his bed and not do anything, which included ignoring Jon as he spoke to Garfield.  At the time it really did not mean much to me and to this day when I hear someone use that phrase or use it myself, I have a flashback to that cartoon.

Even though Jon did not say directly what he had in mind for Garfield’s day it was hinted that he wanted Garfield to get up and take care of the things that he needed to do.  Now, we all know in reality that cats and other pets do not really have any responsibilities to do and that the cartoon was directed towards those people who do not complete the tasks at hand in a timely manner.  All of our pictures could be placed into that cartoon sequence since each one of us has procrastinated in completing some task along with our careers of life.

Eventually, the time comes to complete this unwanted task which brings up an interesting chain of events.  We know that the task at hand needs to be completed; we also know that we do not want to address the situation so we begin to try and find reasons not to complete this simple task.  It is amazing how many things we can conjure up to avoid getting the job done.  It does not matter what the task is either whether simple or complex our minds have a tendency of dreaming up ways to delay the inevitable.  Then we actually come to terms with reality and complete the work that is at hand.  How do I know that humans perform this type of ritual on a routine basis, it is because I am a human and I stand and admit that I have fallen into this pattern of completing tasks in this manner many times on my own?  So, here goes the example of myself in action.

I have told this story many times in my life and just recently to one of my teenagers so the story gets used frequently at my house, as it did in mom and dad’s house when I was younger.  My family and I lived in the south for most of my growing up years which meant that the yard had to be mowed on a continual basis since the high moisture levels and humidity would allow the grass to grow at a fast rate.  For some reason, I had not done my weekly mowing of the lawn on the usual day that I completed the task which prompted mom to remind me that I had to mow the lawn.  Her reminders came almost like clockwork each morning and afternoon for approximately three days.  Yes, I was in procrastination mode to the extreme but even though I knew that I had not done the task as scheduled.

I continued my slacking ways and mom continued her twice daily reminders until the day that I actually completed the task.  It was softball season and the team that I was on practiced on the weekends and you guessed it the weekend was here.  Knowing this tidbit of information about practice, mom once again rattled off her reminder that the grass needed to be mowed but this time she threw in a small sentence that really did not mean much to me at the time and that sentence was something like this, you have practice today and the yard needs to be done this morning.  Now, there are other details that go along with this story that I am not going to mention but with my mind focused on other “pressing” events at that moment I chose not to listen to her and waited until my goofing off period had sufficiently expired which was after lunch and about an hour before practice was about to begin.

Now, with me being a pro at mowing our lawn I knew exactly how long it would take to mow the grass and then have ample of time to make it to practice without any concerns.  So, off to the yard I went and completed my task that I was asked to do with one minor detail left out of the equation and that was the fact that I had completed the yard in the afternoon and not the morning.  At that exact moment I did not think that the additional phrase that she used meant too much, but within a few minutes later I really did understand how important that little sentence actually was.

As I was racing to find my ball clothes and equipment mom came by the room and asked me where I was going, like she did not know I thought to myself so I hurriedly told her and she immediately responded with “no you are not because you did not do what I told you to do” which sent me into a teenage tizzy.  It was not the fact that I had not mowed the yard until I believed it was an appropriate time it was the fact that she had added the small sentence of when I had to have the job completed by that made all the difference.  And with me leaving out and ignoring that detail my plans were “ruined” for the day.

In my world, I was the one that was being wronged and this kind of “thinkage” is common for many people that live in the world today.  But the truth is that it was her house and her rules that I lived under and if she said to something then it was my responsibility to do it and then ask questions later.  I had no idea at that time why she added that last little sentence on her constant reminders and to be honest it was evident that I did not care either since I knew that I could do it my way and have everything done according to what I believed would occur.  But this was a huge assumption from a person who actually was not in control of the entire situation.

As reality sunk in I began to follow another normal teenage pattern and that was to get mad and pout for a while.  So, since I could not leave for practice and I did not want to be around my mother at that time I did the next best thing and went outside to the back yard and sat on the grass which I had just mowed.  I began to talk to myself and at no time did I have the idea that all of this was my fault, however, as I was sitting there on the grass I started looking at the grass and realized that in my rushed capacity to get things done I had missed a small strip of grass.  I followed this small strip and as my eyes continued its path I was now looking at a long line of grass that I had missed.

At this point, I was not too concerned about the missed line of grass for I knew that I would be mowing the grass again within a few days time and I could get it right the next time.  But as I lifted my head and took a casual and quick glance around the yard I saw another long line of uncut grass and then a third one appeared.  I had done a poor job in my quest to finish my task on my terms instead of the terms set by the one who was in charge.

Of course, I felt bad for a few moments but then my selfishness returned once again because of the reality that my plans were shattered.  I survived that moment in my life and so did my mother in fact only a few more hours down the road and all was back to normal again.  However, as I continue to remind my children of that story God also reminds me of that story of other areas in my life as well.  For I am a normal human being just like you and subject to some great attitude thoughts and adjustments along our journey.  See, when we do things in haste or without thinking of all the possibilities the tasks that we are assigned can suffer in some sort of missed details.  And if these details are important enough it could cause serious problems in the future.  In my case the results were not very important to the outside world just in my world but what if a decision was made that could affect an entire town, county, city or continent based upon a hastily act of another person, what would those consequences be?

Whether we like it or not many of us humans like to wait around till the last moment to complete a job that we have known about for an extended amount of time.  It is a way of life for most of us and this practice has become very popular in western sociology, philosophy and our general patterns.  I knew that my mother would at some point see the yard and notice the lines of uncut grass then know that the job that I did was inadequate and would have to be corrected very soon.  Again this incident was very minor and it did not have any consequences except my personal ones but what if the situation was different?

Now to present day events and everything that is occurring in the world.  We all know that humans like to function in unbroken circles and with the ignorance of knowing the true and proper history of mankind are bound to repeat things as they occur again.  There are many examples of human activity in our history that we have refused to address properly and some of these issues are rearing their heads once again.  Just a quick mention and thought provoking circumstance and that is once a war is settled and the participants only agree to a cease fire and not an official term ending agreement, it is only a matter of time until that old wound is reopened and presented to the world stage again. 

My personal example of events and the immediate example above are two totally different sides of the spectrum but both examples presented fair warnings to all participants involved.  When one thinks that things are over and tries to focus on the current pomp and circumstance of the moment they are forgetting a vital piece of the puzzle that has not been detailed and that is the future.  Man has a hard time thinking about and dealing with the future because we have no idea of what the future holds.  So the results that we produce at this moment, even though may get the job done, may not even be relevant an hour down the road or two years later.  Yet, the present is all that we can fully limit ourselves into believing and as history is about to show us, some of our past decisions will come back to bite us today.

This is a prime example of why we need to have someone who knows what is really going on in our lives and throughout the world.  One who knows our past and also has the understanding of our future well enough to protect us from the future in the decisions that we make today.  There is only one being that has this capability and his name is God.  God is the only one who cares enough about us enough to explain answers to us both in the present and in the future right now, and all of the ideas and answers that He gives us are based upon our history, present situations, and future consequences all based upon divine truth all wrapped together in a personal love note to each one of us.

We may not agree with the answers that God gives us all of the time and then there will be times where we do not even completely understand the answers that God gives us or in the way He presents those answers to us but we must first have the knowledge that God loves us enough to formulate an answer that will be the best for our lives not only in the present but in our future as well.  There is a trick to kind of, to begin to, sorta understand God’s answers to people and that is to know human history and how humans have done things in the past and what their decisions have lead to today, or for tomorrow.  Only God completely understands humans and their ways and even though we are human ourselves it is evident that relying on ourselves for truth and guidance is just a bad idea.

I was hoping that with my quick and orchestrated lawn mowing techniques would get me through since I knew what it was going to take to complete my task, but the one who had control of the situation was the one who had the final say in my weekend scheme that day.  We as humans hope to make decisions that will last a lifetime no matter how prepared we were when making those decisions.  Our country has made some decisions in the past that have proven to be wonderful for the entire world yet at the same time made decisions that were completely disastrous for the people of the country.  It does not matter what side of the example rainbow you wish to fall into, our decisions will be faulty if we do not include God in them.

All of us have fallen in this manner and it is ok.  God is not in the finger pointing business but He is in the restoration business.  Let us restore ourselves now before the restoration process is a greater process.  Let us make the decision to stop our selfish ways now and not wait till our living conditions become far worse, so bad that we do not even recognize our own behavior.  This goes out to everyone and not just those who believe in God, it is time we stop and think about what we have done and what we are currently making of our lives and make our decisions based upon what God wishes for our lives instead of heading Him off to prove ourselves correct.  Humans are a faulty bunch and this will not change, so why not look towards the One who is perfect in all ways for guidance.  Sitting around and hoping that you have made a correct decision about a situation is awfully daring coming from such a selfish entity.  It would make sense don’t ya think? 

DLB