It was early spring. The snow had finally melted and the ground was starting to turn from a wet, muddy mess into dirt again.
Time to clean the pasture.
Our three horses had done their dead-level best to bury two full acres in road apples. Armed with only a rake and a large shovel I began early one Saturday to clean it up.
Starting at the fence line I worked one twenty-yard section after another. It was slow progress, but it WAS progress. And I got about half of the first acre cleared when I turned around.
And saw three horses standing back along the fence rail where I had begun, crapping in the corner.
“Hey! What are you doing?!” I yelled.
They looked up, but they didn’t budge. They didn’t stop crapping, either.
And long about that time, I swear God tapped me on the shoulder and whispered in my ear, “That’s exactly what you do to me. Just about the time I get you cleaned up and your life turned around, you go and crap in the corners again.”
Well. What do you do with that?
I laughed. And went back to cleaning the pasture.
The Apostle Paul talks about himself in this same regard, in the letter he wrote to the Romans:
I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.
Romans 7:18-19 NLT
Wait, what? If the Apostle Paul can’t get HIS crap together, what hope is there for me?
Actually, Paul asks and answers that same question just a bit further down in the same letter:
Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 7:24-25 NLT
The answer is Jesus Christ our Lord.
Okay. We know who: Jesus Christ. We know why: So we can be freed from a life dominated by sin and death. The one question remaining is HOW?
The Apostle Paul again explains it to us:
The Lord (Jesus Christ) is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.
2 Corinthians 3:17-18 NLT
As we turn our eyes toward Jesus, we see and reflect His glory. And as we reflect the glory of the Lord, the Holy Spirit makes us more and more like him. We are actually CHANGED into the image of Christ.
Today, instead of crapping in your corners, turn your eyes towards Jesus. Gaze upon him. Place your focus fully on him and dwell in his presence.
And let his power transform you to become more and more like Him.
That’s worship.
–Pastor Steve.