Thursday, after the rain finally stopped, I cleaned up all of the leaves that covered the lawn. (It has been inundated for a couple of weeks.) Our home is surrounded by a wide variety of trees, so I had a similar variety with the addition of many from my surrounding neighbors. I used every single tool that I had – the rake, the lawnmower, the blower/vacuum and of course the largest trash bags that I could. Standing there admiring my accomplishment, I happened to gaze up at the sky. Doing so, I noticed that the leaves on the most of the trees of my neighbor’s oak and my maple and the decorative pear trees across the back of the property were still there.
It dawned on me that there were about three or four times as many leaves still on the trees than I had just bagged up. I guess that means I guaranteed employment as a leaf bagger.
There seems to be a lot of similarity between leaf gathering and the church. Often times we attack a situation - come to a temporary solution and figure that we have completed the job once and for all - only to discover that there is still a lot to do, in fact we have to repeat the same actions. Sometimes it is three or four times more work to do that we initially expected.
Another similarity with cleaning up the leaves is the fact that the church needs to use all ofi the tools at their disposal. We often think linearly (in a straight fashion) using the same tools that we always have. When we ought to thing globally – expanding our vistas and using each and every tool that God has given us. (And I doubt that we can count them all.)
Every resource, every person, every tool, every idea, every method is what is required ofi the church if we are to be the people that God has called us to be.
May it be so,
Richard