Just Mow Around It

I start off this post by saying without hesitation that I am a Texan. I love where I am from but I want to be honest with my upbringing and all you others out there that hail from the Lone Star state...Texas aint got nothin on Tennessee when it comes to scenery. Yes I know Texas has bluebonnets, mesquite trees and sunsets that go on til eternity but I am telling you that they don't compare to the hills of Tennessee. It is this beauty that I often times find myself just driving and having some alone time when not only God speaks to me but I also get to enjoy His handiwork if you know what I'm saying!
Just a few short weeks ago, I was out doing that very thing when I happened to notice a field that had just been cut. I will tell you that it wasn't the view that grabbed my attention but rather the smell of the fresh cut grass as I tried to soak up and use the senses that God gave me. As I drove on by, I noticed out in this field that there were two large brush piles that were filled with old tree limbs and stumps. What caught my eye wasn't that they were brush piles but what the farmer had done. As he mowed the grass to this rather large field, when he got close to the brush piles, he just mowed around them. As I looked at that field, and then at the brush piles that now stood out more than ever since the surrounding grass had been cut, I wondered how long that had been there and why doesn't he just remove them? Doesn't he realize that not only does it look bad but also by leaving it alone it allows other things like weeds and such to take over and keep the grass from growing?
That got my mind to working and I thought of this...Our lives can be just like that field and that farmer. We can let useless, not needed things pile up over time. Maybe it's a habit, or issue that you have left alone. Maybe it is that one thing that all of us deal with and that is SIN. At first it starts off small. We have the intentions of stopping it but over time it just keeps on piling up. Then one day, we realize that that once small thing that at one time was no big deal has grown into something rather large. The problem is that over the years, instead of dealing with it and getting rid of it, you just decide to mow around it and just like that brush pile, when left alone, it not only suffocates all the good things that need to grow but also allows bad things to spring up as well!
The Great News is this, no matter how big your pile of sin is or how long you have been mowing around it, Jesus can come and take it all away. 1 John 1:9...If we confess our sins, HE is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness! When Jesus died on the cross for your sins and my sins, it was as if He did it so that we would not have to mess with our pile. All we have to do is hand it over to Him to remove and when that is done, no longer is your life an eyesore for yourself and others but something beautiful to look upon! And that my firend is a Tennessee Country Lesson!
Consider Your Ways...Pastor John