I felt something surge within me as my foot forced the
blade of the shovel into the ground.
That motion, when done properly and authoritatively makes a very
distinct sound. It’s a sound of promise…
something
is about to move. There were many things
in my life that felt “stuck”, so I was happy for something – anything really –
to MOVE. I was never a very good physics
student, so I don’t really understand the laws of leverage, but I know that sound
is a good and satisfying thing. My
muscles engaged as I used my upper body to hoist the shovel full of dirt out of
the hole and onto the ground beside it.
It wasn’t much of a hole yet, but I was just getting started.
I thought about my days growing up on the farm. I used to watch my dad use post-hole diggers to
make holes in the ground for a new fence.
Dirt has a good smell… even city dirt.
It’s honest work. And sometimes a
soul just needs to engage in something simple – something that actually has
FORWARD progress. When digging holes,
the hole gets steadily deeper with each stroke of the shovel. When raising children, the progress is not so
linear! In fact, it feels like someone
sneaks in at night and fills back UP all the holes I dug the day before. “How
many times must I dig the exact same holes Lord – say the exact same things - do
they listen to anything? Are we making ANY progress?” I was taking out some of my parenting
frustration that morning on my front yard.
About once every five years I get in the mood to work in
my yard. All the other moments in
between, I get in the mood for someone ELSE to work in my yard. But given the fact that we have other
financial priorities, Keith and I somehow do enough to keep the Neighborhood
Association from insisting that we vacate the premises, but just barely. My poor Dad… he fathered three children, and
not a single one of us inherited his love of tilling the earth. I wonder if that makes him sad? I wonder how many holes my Dad dug in parental
frustration when I was a kid?
Today I wasn’t just
digging, I was also planting. The lady
at Home Depot promised that even I did not possess the ability to kill these
“Knock Out Roses.” So I bought ten of
them. I was in the process of digging the FIRST of ten holes when
I encountered the roots. I attacked them
with strength, vigor, and determination.
I flipped the shovel on its side and used it like a sword. I chopped with an over head motion until the
root was basically pulverized. (This was
no whimpy little root! It was big and
twisty and knobby.) I knelt down and ripped
it out of the hole with my bare hands and hurled it victoriously onto the
driveway. I wanted to beat my chest and
make cave man noises, but I was afraid of scaring the neighbors. So I just picked the shovel back up and kept
at it.
After the second AND third holes were ALSO filled with
stubborn roots… I lost that “every 5 year feeling” and got back in the mood for
someone ELSE to work in my yard. No one
was forthcoming; however, so I settled into a rhythm.
Our mission trip to Guatemala is less than a month away,
so I began asking God - during my digging - how He’d like me to prepare myself
spiritually for the trip. (I figured if I was talking TO GOD at the
time, I’d be less likely to cuss as I kept hitting all those roots.) God being the way He is, with thoughts
HIGHER than mine, answered my question by reminding me of a story in Scripture. I would come to understand later that clearly,
God was up to something that day.
The story is from 2 Kings, chapter 3 (in case you decide
you’d like to go read it for yourself.)
But to put it in VERY simple terms, it occurred during the time when
Israel was split into TWO nations: the Northern Kingdom (Israel) and the
Southern Kingdom (Judah). For the most
part, these two “brother” nations did not like each other very much. But in THIS particular passage, the two kings
decided to work TOGETHER to fight against the nation of Moab. Unfortunately, the two kings got caught up in
the emotionalism of the moment and took off half-cocked in hot pursuit of the
Moabite army. They did not take proper
provisions for the journey, and after about a week… they were OUT of
water. There was none for the soldiers,
and none for the horses. They had a BIG,
BIG problem. They’d never make it back
HOME without water, and they didn’t know where to FIND any water if they
proceeded ahead. The king of Judah,
Jehoshaphat (one of my MOST favorite characters in ALL of scripture,) wisely
asked if there was a prophet of the Lord anywhere nearby. Elisha was the preeminent prophet of the day,
so he was summoned to seek a message from God for the kings.
One of the FIRST things Elisha did was call for some
musicians. Elisha understood that MUSIC
has the power to touch the soul. He
believed that he would be able to better HEAR from God if he had musicians
setting the mood. And God came
through. He answered Elisha’s prayer…
but it was a very STRANGE answer. God
wanted the weary, parched soldiers to dig DITCHES all over the valley. The ground was as hard as a rock. The soldiers were exhausted. I had never been more CERTAIN that the LAST thing they
wanted to do was grab a shovel and start DIGGING. (as I was in that moment.) THAT was just going to make them MORE thirsty
and MORE desperate. You see, the answer
they WANTED was for God to say… “Mount up! I have miraculously created a beautiful
mountain stream in the middle of this desert.
It’s just around the next bend.
The water is crisp and clear and ice cold. All you have to do is ride for five more
minutes. Relief will be instant!”
But that’s NOT what God said. God wanted His people to PREPARE for the
blessings He wanted to bring. About this
time in my mental recounting of the story… I looked up to the sky and said, “That’s pretty funny.
You’re reminding me of a bible story about people digging ditches in the
hard ground – WHILE I’m digging holes in my front yard and dealing with all
these roots. You’re funny God.” But I wasn’t yet sure what THAT
story had to do with ME. So I just kept
digging and kept following the storyline in my mind.
I love that God gave the kind of instructions the men of
Israel and Judah were CAPABLE of doing.
He didn’t tell them to invent a rocket to the moon. He didn’t tell them to build a High Rise
Office Building in the middle of a desert.
He told them to do something they already knew HOW to do. When I think of our upcoming Mission Trip to
Guatemala, this part of the story gives me a sense of peace. I’ll be ok.
I’ll know HOW to do what He wants me to do.
Based on my own mood in the moment, I was pretty sure the
soldiers in the story were not EXCITED to do this thing they were fully capable
of doing. They were hot, tired, thirsty,
and probably a little scared. But they
persevered, and they obeyed… and they dug the stupid ditches. They didn’t understand it. There was not a cloud in the sky. NO possibility of rain. No dam nearby that would release water and
instantly fill up those ditches. DESPITE
how things looked to their HUMAN eyes, they simply picked up the shovel and
started digging. Pretty sure that's a picture of faith.
I began to ask God to help ME to simply OBEY in
Guatemala… no matter how hot and tired I feel during the LONG, LONG days. I asked Him to help me obey even when the job
I’m doing doesn’t seem very important or doesn’t seem to make any sense in the
moment.
“This is good” I thought to myself.
“God is helping me prepare my heart for Guatemala while I dig these
holes. Multi-tasking. I’m all about that!”
So, did it work?
After the soldiers went to the trouble of digging the ditches, did God
fill them with water? Oh yes sir, He
certainly DID! All we know for sure is
THAT He did. I can’t explain from
scripture HOW He did it. Scripture
simply tells us in verse 20 “The next morning, about the time for
offering the sacrifice, there it was – water flowing from the direction of
Edom! And the land was filled with
water.” I have no idea what that
means. God just said “Flow” and a
torrent of water poured across the land and filled all those ditches! What a sight that must have been!! Can you IMAGINE the celebration of all the
soldiers who had dug those ditches in faith?
I can’t wait to TALK to a few of them in Heaven!! I want them to tell me the eyewitness account. I want to HEAR what their reaction was! I want to know if they just drank – or if
they went SWIMMING! I wonder if they
regretted not working HARDER? Not
digging DEEPER ditches?
I absolutely LOVE what happens next in the story. The kings had approached the prophet Elisha
with their most URGENT need… water. They
had completely lost sight of the original mission: to defeat the Moabites. All they cared about, all they were focused
on was getting relief from their current predicament. How HUMAN is that? We aren’t really worried about our Final
Grade in the class… we just beg God to help us pass the test TODAY, to get the
paper written ON TIME. God is so much
bigger than we give Him credit for being.
Filling the ditches with water / meeting our immediate need? Scripture tells us “this is an easy thing in the eyes of the LORD” But in the last half of that VERY SAME
sentence in scripture, it tells us “he will also hand Moab over to you.” OH how He longs to bless us – to give us
MORE than we even ASK for. Ephesians 3
says it like this,“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably MORE
than all we ask or imagine…”
I start to get a little excited about THAT part of the
story as I continue sweating and digging in my front yard. My mood had shifted now. I was no longer just doing the dreaded
yardwork – I was PREPARING for Guatemala!
And God just reminded me that He’d do FAR more than I had even asked! AWESOME.
Hole 7 of 10 was nearly done.
And then He went and did that God thing – the “His ways
are Higher than Our Ways thing.”
“Marybeth. You’re missing the
point of the story.”
“Well what do you mean I’m missing the point? We’ve got this whole ditch-digging analogy
thing going here. It’s beautiful… you
reminding me of that story while I’m out here getting blisters with this
shovel. I get it. I’m preparing for Guatemala as I meditate on
that story!”
“You do not need to prepare for GUATEMALA. Guatemala will prepare YOU.”
“Come Again?”
“Guatemala is NOT your Mission Field. Norcross, Georgia is where I’ve planted
you. You are not going to SERVE in
Guatemala. You are going to Guatemala to
TRAIN. They will teach YOU. Your service to ME is in the place where I’ve
planted you. I created you for much more
than just one mission trip per year. Go
to Guatemala and listen for my voice.
Share your faith with the villagers.
Love hurting people with your words and your hugs and the medicine you
will give them. Then come home and do
likewise. Reach out to the people I
bring across your path.”
I don’t know what to say Lord.
I had the wrong mindset about this trip.
I thought it was the destination.
But you’re telling me it’s just a pitstop on the journey. I thought it was the SEASON, but you’re
telling me it’s just “training camp” to prepare for the season. I’m not sure I can shift gears that fast.
“You’ve got three more holes to dig.
Maybe you should just focus on that for now.”
And that’s exactly what I did. But as I watered all ten new rose bushes
after they were in the ground, I began asking God to water this thought He had
planted in ME that day.
