#fathes

Talking quickly on the phone to his father, the young man stated,

“Yea Dad I am about to mow the lawn but I’m concerned that it may storm soon”

His father in a matter of fact tone responded, “Well, the clouds would certainly seem to indicate that a storm is indeed coming soon.”

Motivated by previous instructions to complete the clean nature of the yard the son hurried his father off the phone and assured his dad that he was about to take care of the task at hand, immediately. Rapidly he put on his “lawn mowing clothes” and scurried into the garage to pull out the lawn mower. At this point he began the usual ritual before mowing the lawn, which consisted of checking the gas and the oil to make sure there was enough. Upon realizing the low level of the gas, he walked over to a shelf and lifted the red and yellow container; he unscrewed the black cap and began to pour the gas into the tank. As usual the gas spilled over at the end. He thought to himself that gas was getting to the point that he had to stop that. Nevertheless a casual shrug erased all feelings of concern and he pushed the lawnmower closer to the grass.

At that moment a rumble in the atmosphere attracted his attention. Immediately he looked up and that’s when he saw it. The clouds that earlier this morning seemed to welcome sunlight were now darkly pregnant with the foreshadowing of an abundance of rain. However, not one to be discouraged by the current situation. The young man eager to do his father’s will, shrugged once again, as he yanked on the cord to start the lawnmower. Immediately it quaked, and rumbled with a loud petroleum influenced hum, and the young man became to press on and push his tool across the lawn. Going this way and that in a vertical fashion, the young man began to make progress. However instead of doing the whole front of the yard on one side of the house and then the back and then completing the other side, as was his usual habit; the young man decided to do ‘both’ front parts of the house first. In doing the front first, in the event of a downpour, at least the front of the house would look trimmed.

He would have taken time to applaud himself on getting the first half of the yard done. Yet he knew he couldn’t do this. The storm was coming soon, and that would be a time when he couldn’t work. Quickly completing his second half of the front he immediately geared his attention towards the back portion of the yard.

And that’s when it happened. The first drop of rain that grazed his back, almost as disturbing as that first mosquito bite of the summer. Then there was another, and another, and another. Each one slowly increasing the tempo to which the next raindrop would fall. The once annoying pest of precipitation now became an impromptu swarm of water droplets, manifesting itself as a flash mob upon the parade of the young man’s lawn mowing procession.

The sky had now shifted to a shade of grey, and instantaneously, thoughts of how insane it would be to complete this task began to soak his mind. By now he could see people driving by, windows rolled up, curiously eyeing him as if he was some sort of oddity. The noise of the lawnmower was now at the stage of battling the onslaught of rain tumbling down from the clouds above. He could just stop, he should just stop. After all, wasn’t that what reality was insisting, for him to drown under the pressure of the storm and divorce the task that his father had given him?

And then it happened. Out of nowhere the young man encouraged himself, he had to be about his father’s business. Then he began to laugh, he laughed because despite the obstacles at hand, he knew that he could finish his task. He then began to exert all of the energy he had in his legs, and arms, and feet. Kicking violently at the ground, it seemed as if time itself was unmoving and the grass was unrelenting, yet still he pushed on with the determination surging a flood of adrenaline into his body. All the while imagining the response of approval he would hear from his father. He moved the lawnmower back and forth this way and that, clothes soaked to the point as of coming out of a baptismal tank, shoes caked in the olive green grass, he was determined.

And then it happened. He was done. Finished, complete. Soaked and dirty, but finished.

It seemed as if the storm was aware that he was finished to, because as soon as he turned off the lawnmower, the intimidating clouds receded, and glamorous rays of sunlight took their place. However it was not the accomplished task that rewarded the young man, nor the passing of the rain. It was the fact that he realized that storms, no matter how big or how small, have to soon pass. With that he dragged the lawnmower into the garage. He was eager to hear the well-done of his father.

MESSAGE- Storms don’t last forever, sometimes your greatest storm stands in the way of your greatest victory. And in the end all we need to strive for is the “WELL DONE” of our Heavenly Father.

  Be not weary in well doing for in due season you will reap if you faint not –Galatians 6:9

  Peace and God bless