Overlook
We have a nice lawn.
It didn’t always used to be that way. Our home is on a few acres in the county not too far from Little Rock, AR. Half our land is our house and yard; the other half is a densely wooded area that descends to a wetland bog and creek. The woods are full of ticks, mosquitoes, quite a few animals, and water snakes. The land our home sits on was once a large field full of weeds, stickers, rocks, and, well, more weeds. With the help of a fertilizer company, some sod, and lots of TLC, we now have a really nice lawn. The bare spots have grown in, drainage problems are fixed, and there are no more rocks or weeds. My neighbors now rib me about making them look bad since we’ve been able to turn lumpy pasture into a level lawn plush with grass that my bare feet enjoy most days in the summer.
Because we have acres and some of it is wooded, we don’t have a fence. We essentially have a wood line on three sides that acts as our fence to the lawn. Every morning when I let our dog, Finn (a 50-lb. apricot-colored Standard Poodle that looks like a doodle), out, he races to the wood line, totally ignoring the pristine grass and beautiful lawn. For several minutes, he’ll trot up and down the wood line to ensure nothing entered the lawn overnight, and if something did, he tags it with his nose.
On a few occasions, Finn will hear a deer or rabbit, or see some other animal, and chase it into the woods. He’ll be gone for a half hour, only to return muddy, with burs and ticks tangled in his precious poodle fur. It’s a terrible mess.
If I’m not careful, I can be like Finn. Like Finn, I can bypass the great things God has given me and long for something I don’t have. I can look to the woods and ignore the lawn—the lawn my Master worked hard to create and provide for me. The lawn is mine, and yet I am constantly distracted by the woods.
As church leaders, we can often overlook the blessings of what we have because we long for what we don’t. It’s easy to chase the “ifs”: If we had a new building. If we had a better sound system. If we had a different student pastor. If we were in a different location. If we had more funding.There is nothing wrong with strategic planning for improvements or a capital campaign if the Lord has called you to it, but those aren’t answers to problems. They are tools God will use for His glory.
My guess is, you already have quite a few tools you might be overlooking as you chase those “ifs.” Things like trust from your people, good fellowship within the body, a prayer group that is growing in intensity and number, or a youth group that is small, but wow, do they love their school campus.
Are you missing what God is already doing and distracted by what He isn’t? What areas in your church are growing, and where do you sense God at work? Have you taken time lately to survey the lawn He has been growing and been grateful for it?
My encouragement is to appreciate what God has given you, what He is doing, and do all you can to join Him in the growth—being careful to feed and water your people so the lawn will continue to grow, expand, and maybe even, one day, take over that wood line.