Sweeping Surrender

Have you ever tried sweeping your yard with a broom? My guess is that you probably haven’t. Well, here in Nicaragua, they use brooms. And let me tell you what, after a few minutes the process becomes a tedious, aggravating chore. One day in particular, my team and I were scheduled to be doing ministry with a pastor for his church. When we arrived at our destination, it was already well over 100 degrees out. The pastor took us to his church so we could prepare the grounds for the service. Some of the team was on “rock duty” and collected every rock in the entire landscape surrounding the church, while Jenna and I walked to the “church school” grounds with a few of the locals. This is where the challenge began.

Jenna and I were both handed brooms and instructed to sweep the leaves and trash into large piles to be burned. Little fact about Nicaragua during dry season: the ground consists of dirt – and more dirt. The addition of leaves, trash, and sporadic patches of grass are just a bonus. Jenna and I decided to sweep the yard from opposite ends so we could meet in the middle to finish. Like I said, this activity quickly grew strenuous, aggravating, and a little frustrating.
The leaves and little flower petals were semi-crunchy due to the hot sun drying them out, therefore causing them to be sensitive to touch. As we swept, the wind came in swift waves, creating a funnel for the leaves to flow out of the places we had so intricately worked to gather them into. The leaves would crumble and grind into smaller pieces which would then roll under the bristles of the broom, making it more difficult to clear. When I had a good size pile collected up, a young man would come over and set fire to it and the mess burned into ash. 

Around this same time, The Lord had been teaching me about surrender. The entire time we were struggling in the hot sun to sweep up the little pellets of trash and debri, I realized this was very similar to my process of fully surrendering to Abba. The things I had been hesitant to surrender, were the leaves that had dried out over time (neglected -> more dry -> more difficult). This then made the sweeping (cleaning) process more difficult than it would have been. The broom is symbolic to The Lord as my strength. The wind was comparable to distractions of this life, constantly pulling me away from what I should be focusing on (the leaves). The fire is The Lord, igniting and burning away the trash I had finally swept up (cleansing process). The smoke that the fire gave off is like the grieving period that I had to endure in order to fully be able to get closure and move forward.

Looking over the yard after this process, I appreciated how clean and spectacular it was. It was a beautiful place the entire time, I just couldn’t see it as well because of all the muck. This experience reminds me of William Paul Young’s, The Shack, in the chapter A Long Time Ago, In a Garden Far, Far Away. Hopefully sharing this excerpt will give you some insight to the beauty of this book. In this quote, The Lord is talking to Mackenzie (the main character) about a garden they have been treacherously striving to uproot and make new.

“….this garden is your soul. This mess is you! Together, you and I, we have been working with a purpose in your heart. And it is wild and beautiful and perfectly in process. To you it seems like a mess, but I see a perfect pattern emerging and growing and alive – a living fractal.”

Although we may be sweeping up crunchy leaves in the hot sun with wind currents blowing everything everywhere, The Lord promises that He will bring us of out of these difficult times. He never said it would be an easy process. But He does tell us, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:1-5 NIV.)

I am writing this as a reminder to myself that as I continue to grow into a deeper intimacy with Abba, I will still be enduring hardships. As I said, surrender seems to be something I have to be persistent with and practice often. It’s not a one time thing – it’s a constant decision. This life we live is not ours. So why bother holding onto things that do not belong to us. I am going to continue to strive for complete surrender and I encourage you to take a step back, out of the wind of your life and look around. What do you see? What is keeping YOU from a deeper intimacy with HIM? If you can’t or aren’t willing to see it, just ask him. Trust me, He will show you! He loves YOU THAT much! He loves you so much He wants to show you where you need to grow because he wants you to become more like HIM! Wow. We are more fortunate than we realize. 

I praised you and thank you Abba for revealing yourself to me in ways that I can understand – even when it means I have to sweep a yard in the burning heat to finally understand it! Thank you for loving me so much to be willing to take me to the valleys and walk with me through them so that I may also see from the mountain tops! I love you!