Blowing Grace
Luke 14:14
"And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just."
Been feeling like Hans Brinker with the wooden skates of late.
We live in a neighborhood of people with snowblowers. Lina and I are Luddites....we do our snow removal by hand with a shovel. In general, Lina and I do not have the arsenal of tools and equipment for fine suburban living. If we were Swiss Army Knives, we are talking the basic model with a knife and not much else.
Before moving to Lancaster, Lina lived in a maintenance-free Condo in Princeton. I lived in Columbia. In her Condo, all outside maintenance was done by the Association. In Columbia, nobody really cared. Same result. Outside of a mower, we are talking a steep drop off of technology.
Our neighbors to the left have a pretty nice array of such tools like a power washer, a snowblower, an electric hedger, and etc. Us, we have early suburban Stone Age rocks. These neighbors are very generous with us...when they see us acting Amish with pre-modern implements, they offer to let us use their stuff. But I always feel bad and don't want to be beholden to anyone.
This morning, I went out to shovel again. I was bemoaning about two weeks ago that we had missed the December storm as we were out in California. I feared that we would see no white stuff for the rest of the season. Rest assured, I have been satiated by snow at this point.
This time, even though we had kept ahead of the storm's snow in the driveway, we were plowed in by the munincipality. We have all heard of Phil Spector's "Wall Of Sound." Well, we had a "Wall O' Snow." Starting a 6:30, I was still at it around 8:30. I felt as if I was striving against the Sea with a tea cup. By my calculations, I figured I would conclude around 11:30. Like a stubborn mule, I knew there was little chance I would not get it done. But, my back would ache and I would have spent half the day doing it. Instead, of writing this blog for the edification of millions of my loyal followers.
I was feeling seriously envious this morn when I saw a neighbor throwing massive amounts of snow in a beautiful sun-spackled arc while I was plodding along shovel-by-shovel in a 10:1 ratio. It is not that Lina and cannot afford a snowblower but we both try to be frugal. For all of our differences, we do share that quality. Yet, it is hard to justify buying a snowblower when most winters are hardly going to be as snow-laden as this one.
We are trying to live leaner than we need to and pay our debts first. Freaks, I know.
My deliverance came in the form of another neighbor who has a snowblower. He said that he would help (did not ask, he told me that he would help). It was kind of fair in one way; his daughter had parked her car on our side of the street, causing a distribution of the snow pile to list and lean seriously to our side. Yet, subtracting that familial obligation, still left 3.2 tons of snow on the ledger to be reconciled. Kind of like the National Debt. I was discouraged.
It is hard for me to accept a hand...why is that? Some seem all to eager to become dependent in our society. Others renounce offers of assistance. Neither response is right.
We can't earn God's favor. Plenty of people in Hell had misplaced independence of the idolatrous nature. Would Christ have come and died if there was another way to shovel us out of the snowdrift of sin? Rugged individualists become ragged. And raggedness, leads to wreckedness.
I need to learn to accept help and retire my self-sufficiency shovel. Sharing each others' burdens is biblical. We are all in this snowstorm together.
"And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just."
Been feeling like Hans Brinker with the wooden skates of late.
We live in a neighborhood of people with snowblowers. Lina and I are Luddites....we do our snow removal by hand with a shovel. In general, Lina and I do not have the arsenal of tools and equipment for fine suburban living. If we were Swiss Army Knives, we are talking the basic model with a knife and not much else.
Before moving to Lancaster, Lina lived in a maintenance-free Condo in Princeton. I lived in Columbia. In her Condo, all outside maintenance was done by the Association. In Columbia, nobody really cared. Same result. Outside of a mower, we are talking a steep drop off of technology.
Our neighbors to the left have a pretty nice array of such tools like a power washer, a snowblower, an electric hedger, and etc. Us, we have early suburban Stone Age rocks. These neighbors are very generous with us...when they see us acting Amish with pre-modern implements, they offer to let us use their stuff. But I always feel bad and don't want to be beholden to anyone.
This morning, I went out to shovel again. I was bemoaning about two weeks ago that we had missed the December storm as we were out in California. I feared that we would see no white stuff for the rest of the season. Rest assured, I have been satiated by snow at this point.
This time, even though we had kept ahead of the storm's snow in the driveway, we were plowed in by the munincipality. We have all heard of Phil Spector's "Wall Of Sound." Well, we had a "Wall O' Snow." Starting a 6:30, I was still at it around 8:30. I felt as if I was striving against the Sea with a tea cup. By my calculations, I figured I would conclude around 11:30. Like a stubborn mule, I knew there was little chance I would not get it done. But, my back would ache and I would have spent half the day doing it. Instead, of writing this blog for the edification of millions of my loyal followers.
I was feeling seriously envious this morn when I saw a neighbor throwing massive amounts of snow in a beautiful sun-spackled arc while I was plodding along shovel-by-shovel in a 10:1 ratio. It is not that Lina and cannot afford a snowblower but we both try to be frugal. For all of our differences, we do share that quality. Yet, it is hard to justify buying a snowblower when most winters are hardly going to be as snow-laden as this one.
We are trying to live leaner than we need to and pay our debts first. Freaks, I know.
My deliverance came in the form of another neighbor who has a snowblower. He said that he would help (did not ask, he told me that he would help). It was kind of fair in one way; his daughter had parked her car on our side of the street, causing a distribution of the snow pile to list and lean seriously to our side. Yet, subtracting that familial obligation, still left 3.2 tons of snow on the ledger to be reconciled. Kind of like the National Debt. I was discouraged.
It is hard for me to accept a hand...why is that? Some seem all to eager to become dependent in our society. Others renounce offers of assistance. Neither response is right.
We can't earn God's favor. Plenty of people in Hell had misplaced independence of the idolatrous nature. Would Christ have come and died if there was another way to shovel us out of the snowdrift of sin? Rugged individualists become ragged. And raggedness, leads to wreckedness.
I need to learn to accept help and retire my self-sufficiency shovel. Sharing each others' burdens is biblical. We are all in this snowstorm together.
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