Debris

I’ve often been known to refer to Tulsa as “the other Windy City.” (A collective groan: “MORE about the weather??”)

Well, sort of. But not quite.

What I get tired of is not the wind itself, but all the debris that it blows into my yard(s).

My front door faces north, and sits in a sort of alcove. So when a cold front blows through, the neighborhood litter likes to collect at my front step. As I write this, the latest cold front has scattered something brown and raggedy in my front yard for me to go pick up. I haven’t decided if it is shredded cardboard or dead cornstalks. I’ll have to get back to you on that.

What really confounds me, however, is the south wind that blows debris into my back yard. Why? Because there is this high privacy fence surrounding it. I do not know how many times I’ve let the dog out and seen a plastic bag or empty potato chip bag or candy wrapper blowing around the yard, and wondered, Where the heck did THAT come from? The wind is obviously blowing this stuff all the way from the main road at least 300 yards away, across an open field and over the fence. Nice.

So…because I haven’t said anything overtly spiritual in a couple of days (although we know now that everything is sacred for us Jesus-followers)…let’s see what spiritual truth I can extract out of this…hmmmmmmmmm…..

We all have debris blowing around in our lives. (How’s that?)

No matter how hard you work on the yard that is your life, or how clean you try to make it appear…eventually you will see more debris blowing around it. And when you look at your neighbors’ perfectly manicured lawns and shrubbery and make comparisons to the weeds in your own…you need to remember that they have debris, too. It might be hiding behind their privacy fences, but it’s there. This is because we are all of us works in progress. Every one of us is broken in some way, every one of us sustains wounds from the war of life, and every one of us is, in some way, a pile of rubble and debris. Not only that, but because we’re always rubbing up against each other, we litter other people’s yards with debris, too.

We are all in need of restoration, and I believe Jesus the Healer is always seeking to clear away the debris, clean us up, rebuild us. But my experience is that healing of this sort comes in layers. And that’s why just when you think you have your yard all cleaned up…sooner or later you find more debris. And that’s also why we can never take pride in our own sense of righteousness.

Thankfully, God’s love for us has nothing to do with the debris in our lives. Jesus meets us in our broken state and embraces us just as we are…and as we walk with Him, His love works in us the healing and debris-cleaning we so desperately need.

Just checked…it’s cornstalks. Or at least something leafy and dead. Good thing it’s garbage night.

Wayward Son

Musician. Composer. Recovering perfectionist. Minister-in-transition. Lover of puns. Hijacker of rock song references. Questioner of the status quo. I'm not really a rebel. Just a sincere Christ-follower with a thirst for significance that gets me into trouble. My quest has taken me over the fence of institutional Christianity. Here are some of my random thoughts along the way. Read along, join in the conversation. Just be nice.
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