Should I Wait Or Take Action?

I have a dilemma: do I wait or take action? Sometimes patience is the best policy, but sometimes it’s better to go ahead and get it done.

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About two weeks ago, I came home from work to find little flags on my lawn. I’ve seen things like this before.

I’ve seen people put pink flamingos on a lawn where someone has turned an unsettling age. There have been ornaments on lawns where a significant event has happened like a retirement, anniversary or birth.

But when I saw these little flags I knew they weren’t for any of these reasons. For one, I’m not close to a birthday or any other special occasion.

What really tipped me off was the words on the wee flags – words like “gas”, “Bell”, “utilities”. I wasn’t the only one on the street to have these flags either.

Every house on the street had them. I wasn’t special; I was the same as everyone else.

When I came in the house, Lily informed me that we also got a notice in the mailbox. It explained that Bell would be coming around to put in new lines on our street.

The notice assured us that, though they would have to dig up our lawn, they would make sure the lawn was put back the way it was.

It was a nice notice, a comforting notice, but there was no date as to when they would do this.

It’s now been two weeks and all there is is spray paint and wee little flags on our lawn.

I figure I need to cut my grass one more time before the frost puts a halt to its growth. So if they don’t hurry up and put these new lines in, they will need to cut my grass for me in order for them to put my lawn back the way it was.

Well, it’s either that or I need to cut grass and do a little contour mowing around the flags.

Since the temperatures are to soar up to summertime heights this week, it would be a great week to do one last pass of the lawnmower over the grass for the season.

On the other hand, I don’t want to muck up their work and confuse them by accidentally taking out a flag or two.

I can just see them digging away and “up through the ground comes a bubblin’ crude, black gold, Texas tea, oil that is”.

Well, in my case that would be natural gas, but who cares, it’s all fuel of some kind.

I don’t want to make their job harder. I don’t want to make them have to remark my lawn. But I do want to give my lawn a trim before the snow flies.

I think I’ll give them until Wednesday, and then if they haven’t started digging, well, maybe I’ll have a new career as an oil baron … I mean gas baron (same diff).

Here’s the thing: God has little flags on many different parts of your life. And that means there will need to be some digging and replacing. You shouldn’t ignore the work He’s doing or going to do, but you also shouldn’t just sit back, do nothing and wait. Don’t neglect your spiritual life. God will make sure it all gets put together for the better.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you put off doing in your spiritual life? Leave your comment below.

Santa Is Dead

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I don’t think Santa is coming back next year.

I am fully aware that it is March and we are far, far from that time of year when the jolly old fella usually shows up. However, I just happened to be driving by a house in a nearby subdivision and there was Santa lying on the ground. Pictures don’t lie … and the spears that have pinned him and his trusty helpers to the ground, don’t bode well for his return next December.

Dead Santa

No, I don’t believe in Santa Claus, but I do believe in keeping your decorations applicable to the season. I understand that some people leave their Christmas lights up all year long, but if you don’t look up too high you don’t even notice them.

Lawn ornaments, though? Come on! How hard is it to pack Santa up and put him a box? He’s already been deflated; there’s no HO, HO, HO left in him. I think the kids on the street would become a little suspect that Santa isn’t real when he is laying dead on your doorstep for three months.

As I have looked around the neighbourhood, I’ve seen lots of Christmas ornaments still on display. There was a plastic snowman on a lawn the other night with a light still shining brightly inside him. This weekend was St. Patrick’s Day – at least put a shamrock or a green scarf around his neck!

I’ll admit I’m not the first guy to take down his lights after Christmas. I usually miss the first warm day and end up taking them down when it’s freezing outside. But I get the job done by the middle of January at the latest!

Last year as I was walking around our neighbourhood, I noticed there were lots of people who still had their Christmas lights up in April and May. By looking at the condition of some of the lights, it was apparent they had been there for several years.

Maybe those people lost their ladder. Maybe their garage is so packed that the ladder is buried in there somewhere. Maybe they figure they don’t have room for lights in the basement or garage so they just leave them up.

I think that if you leave your Christmas decoration up all year you have to use them in some way, like maybe change the lightbulbs to pink and blue and white for Easter. Have your blow up Santa hold a big old Pysanka (Ukrainian Easter egg).

On Canada Day, change your lights to red and white and have your blow up reindeer sport Canadian flag saddles. On Labour Day, place them all working in the garden.

Maybe we should have a law that you get a $25 fine for having Christmas decorations up past February 1st. Here’s an idea: JUST TAKE DOWN YOUR CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS!

Here’s the thing: Sometimes we don’t deal with the sin in our lives right away. It becomes clutter in our relationship with God. We need to pay attention to the clutter or we get used to having it in our lives. The best way to take down the clutter or sin is through regular confession to God.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What tends to clutter you home, yard, life? Leave your comment below.