Windrows

Windrows.  A new word!  Having been raised on “Wordly Wise” at the Lovett School in Atlanta, where we had weekly quizzes on almost every arcane word known to the English-speaking world, I find it oddly exciting to find a new word. The word of the week is “windrow.”  Around here, it means the pile of snow that is left at the foot of your driveway after the plows have come by.  In case you haven’t experienced windrows after 14 inches of snow, those suckers can be 4-5 feet high. Literally.  And that’s after you’ve already worked to get your driveway pristinely clear.

Some folks around here have complained to the city about the windrows, as if the plow drivers leave them there intentionally.  “Hey, I’ve been driving this snowplow for 12 hours, I think I’ll have a little fun and leave a mountain range of snow in this person’s driveway.” I see it as just the opposite. I had a lovely, clean, windrow-free driveway for most of the day yesterday, because my street remained unplowed. I was thrilled when I looked out late last night and saw my very own windrow- the plows had come!  Andy and I cleared it as new snow kept falling, and we cleared another one this morning.  Keep the plows coming, we’ll clean all the windrows you can give us.

I’ve been thinking about spiritual growth a lot lately.  Right now is one of those seasons in my life where circumstances are forcing me to grow a little faster than I’d prefer. Sometimes it’s kind of messy, and often it irritates me.  “I thought I’d gotten this thing cleaned up in my head a long time ago, and now I’m dealing with it again? Ugh!” What I’m really seeing, I think, are windrows.  The plow has come by, big things are getting cleared up, and the things that irritate me most are simply the remnants of something bigger that is happening. So I’ll shovel myself out one more time and be thankful that the plows have found their way to me.

Weeds become flowers

Sometimes, even when life is full of blessings, the difficult parts threaten to overwhelm.  Worries and

fears crowd in, obscuring almost everything else.  It happens to us all, Scripture reminds us, and it

happened recently to a dear friend of mine. Plowing through the tough times is hard work. It is often in those most difficult times that God is most visibly at work.  Sometimes the work of God involves removing the source of fear and anxiety, and sometimes God’s work is inside us, helping us walk through one more day in the valley.

These things were on my mind the other day when I came across the following poem by Joyce Rupp. She manages to speak so much truth and hope in these few sentences.

How I love it

when what I’ve known

as a weed

in me

suddenly becomes

a beautiful flower.

How I delight

when the rejected part

of me

becomes my friend.

How I cherish

the struggles

that change

my inner enemies

into my beloved friends.

Sally for Pope?

When I arrived at church this morning, I announced to all who were within earshot my official intention to run for Pope. Well, actually, my announcement may have involved the term “Pope-ette.”  For some reason, no one felt a need to offer to help me pack up my office in anticipation of my move to the Vatican.  

Ignoring my audience’s lack of enthusiasm, I went into my office to start typing my resume. I saw the message light on my phone, a call from someone I haven’t seen in a long, long time. My curiousity was piqued, and I returned the call.  This person was calling to apologize for a very minor slight that was over a decade old.  Frankly, at the time I had understood the person’s actions and had taken no offense. I was touched deeply by this person’s willingness to find me and call me after all of these years.  The rest of the phone call was getting caught back up on the many events in our families’ lives in the intervening years.  What a delightful gift to begin the week!

On further reflection, I hereby renounce my candidacy for the papacy.  This life that I have the privilege of living is too full of unexpected blessings to trade it in on some other life.  Someone else can wear the nifty hats and run the Vatican, I am thankful today to be exactly where God has put me.