Hi everyone,
So I took advantage of the clear weather we had in the Lower Mainland yesterday by spending almost 6 hours outside… taking care of our lawn. If you remember from back in the spring, I dug up our backyard in hopes that I could revitalize the dying grass and well it worked… in patches. There were a lot of spots that just didn’t want to grow grass for some reason.
I spent some time in reading about what to do, conversations with others more knowledgeable than I, and watching the weather forecast to see when would be a good time to start doing something with this grass. And yesterday was the day.
But of course, as soon as I was done all the gruelling work of cutting, shaping, digging, and filling, I checked some other sources that outlined a slightly different method of approach. There are many different climates, different types of soil, different species of grass even, to consider when trying to get a sweet looking lawn. And each of these considerations might change your methods up a little. It isn’t easy, that’s for sure.
Sigh… I was starting to think that there isn’t one real way of doing this, but just the basics: seed on soil with water. As long as I could do that, then maybe grass could grow.
Here is a video of the readings for next week:
Well, it’s kind of clear that these readings aren’t easy ones, especially in this day and age when things around relationships have become so fluid and thus controversial. I can see people holding these texts up as “proof” of their long-standing beliefs, and others putting these texts down because they don’t speak to their lived experience. What can we say about this?
Well, I think universally we can say, regardless of what your views on marriage are… is that relationships are hard.
It isn’t easy to navigate life with another person, romantically or not. It isn’t easy to be open with another human being, be vulnerable, and share yourself with them. It isn’t easy to love another, even when that love is strictly platonic. Relationships in general just aren’t easy.
And I think it isn’t easy because we are so different. It isn’t easy because we have our own way of seeing things, accepting things, and interpreting things. It isn’t easy because we are who we are and we love who we love, but that doesn’t make us the same with the same wants, the same needs, the same lived experiences.
At the same time, the difficulties of relationships is also what makes it beautiful. How people can together get over obstacles, journey rough terrain, and just figure out life with each other is amazing. But just as a healthy lawn doesn’t just appear overnight as much as we would like, so does a healthy relationship take work, effort, and intention.
This doesn’t mean that every relationship should work. This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t ever feel pain and brokenness. This most certainly doesn’t mean that we are abandoned when things don’t work out.
But it does mean that while difficult, we are given the gift of relationship. While it isn’t easy, we may know the joys of companionship. While it remains hard, we can love and be loved and know that we needn’t be alone when we have a God who graciously provides and welcomes us into community.
Thanks be to God! Have a great week, everyone!
Photo by Amanda Mocci on Unsplash