Time to Get to Shoveling!

Think about this: How many times in our lives has the “stuff” that we thought would go away on its own… actually over time become big, filthy mountains that were incredibly difficult to remove and even worse to navigate around? You know what I mean. It’s kind of like that relationship or friendship that you are sitting around hoping will dissolve on its own instead of doing the work necessary and shoveling that mess yourself. Now you have this big ole’ communication- blocking, I can’t see you and you sure can’t see me, mountain of relational problems that keeps getting dirtier and dirtier by the minute.

I’m guilty. There are things (habits, attitudes, residue from the past) in my life that I’ve quite frankly underestimated. Sins and/or strongholds that, on some scale or hierarchy of my own distorted creation, seemed like not all that big of a deal at their inception…and yet in the long run became something too vast to deal with, leaving me susceptible to all kinds of other filth, and making it extremely difficult for others in my life who have the misfortune of having to navigate around my issues.

Could my “snow mountain” have been my selfishness that I often disguised as “doing me?” Maybe it was my misplaced ambition? Has what once was just this itty, bitty, self-defense mechanism that I should have “shoveled” early on, turned into a great wall of ice that I use to keep even those who mean me well from knowing the real me?

How do these mountains that we allow to sit around in our lives impact our relationship with people, and most importantly, God?

There is hope.

Just like the sun melts all snow including the hard, yucky, dirty kind we had piled up all around Philly, the SON (Christ) can also remove the big, dirty stuff in our lives. I’m most certainly grateful for his grace and mercy in that regard.

But, for me, there is an accountability issue here. While yes, God will heal (melt) our stuff (snow). That process usually takes time. Not because He isn’t capable of doing it in an instant but because there are lessons to be learned in that process. I sometimes think that that some of the deliverances we hope to see in our lives are slow going not because God is powerless or toying around with us but because we refuse to engage. You see, even in winter weather, it helps when you are proactive and begin to shovel the snow early or lay down some salt (word) to begin the melting process that the sun will continue later on. Therefore, I can’t help but wonder if we can shorten the amount of time that it takes to receive our healing, restoration, etc. by simply dealing with our stuff as it comes up versus waiting for it to harden us and/or attract other dirty issues.

I’m a firm believer in the grace and mercy of the Father made real to us through our savior, Jesus. I acknowledge the fact that His strength is made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor. 12:9). But I have to ask the question: How much of our weakness is a result of our authentic brokenness and how much of it is a result of an internal laziness—our unwillingness to “get to shoveling?”