As a young Christian I could not comprehend that God wanted his light to search my innermost thoughts and actions. To reveal my sin. To set my path straight. But of course it’s true…and I had been terribly mistaken.
I can see now that God wants our lives to be ensconced in clear glass to expose our errant ways and shoot past them. The word sin means “to miss the mark of God.” How much more incentive do we need to open up in order to make sure we don’t miss the mark of our God?
All of this reminds me of a Southern California landscape ritual that starts in the fall when Bermuda grass lawns are skinned to the dirt and over-seeded for the winter. The big pay-off comes in the spring when the temporary lawn turns into a lush green canvas that is even more beautiful than it was before the fall skinning.
Our spiritual life is a lot like Bermuda grass.
Occasionally we need to “skin the grass” in our lives and endure pain in order to grow. When we are reluctant to accept that pain, God’s promises can lie unclaimed. We dream about making a change in our life but our good intentions never gain life. We just assume that nothing can or will change. We relegate our life to one of “getting through it” with the least amount of pain.
I know this all too well—it was me early in my faith walk. I was CONVINCED that there was NO WAY God could change my thought pattern and ability to BELIEVE—truly believe—that I was a saint and could choose to be in God’s inner sanctuary.
But once I “opened up” and allowed God to “skin my life’s grass,” his magnificence transformed what I thought was forbidden ground and I walked straight into his inner sanctuary!
And you could do that exact same thing today…RIGHT NOW if you need to skin the grass in any area of your life to make it grow deeper and more beautiful for others to see and God to get the glory.
We need to open the windows to the areas of our hearts that need to be exposed to God’s guiding light. We need to have God teach us true humility so that we can embrace the changes he desires to make, shaping us to into vessels for his glory.
“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23-24
We need to skin our grass.
