I just got done mowing the lawn. It had been about ten days since I had mowed because we were in Texas visiting. Ten days with lots of water from the sprinkling system and lots of Georgia sun, I came home to a yard that looked more like it needed harvesting then mowing. It took maybe two and a half hours to trim and mow, along with blowing off the driveway and tell you what, I am beat!
As I sat down to write it struck me that I am not getting any younger. There was a time when I worked eight or more hours sometimes seven days a week and partied four hours or more every night. I slept as few hours as possible. Got up the next day and did it all over again. Where did I get the strength and endurance?
I think it was around 1986 a favorite rocker of mine, Bob Seger, released a song titled, “Like a Rock”. The song spoke of how as a young man Seger viewed himself as strong and stable, comparing himself to a rock. There is a lyric that says this:
“I was eighteen, Didn’t have a care, Working for peanuts, not a dime to spare, But I was lean and solid everywhere, like a rock. (Like a Rock by Bob Seger)
That is the way I thought of myself, even as I was destroying my body with substances and work itself, nothing could hurt me, I was like the song, a rock. Amazingly enough for almost thirty years that seemed to be true. I worked, I continued to use alcohol and drugs as if they could not hurt me and I did so day after day. But even with this durable body the Lord provided me, that kind of life took its toll.
Add twelve years of the antigen drug I have been taking to keep prostate cancer at bay, along with two lengthy sessions of radiation, now a couple hours in the Georgia heat mowing the lawn makes me feel old. But for me there is also an advantage in realizing that I am not a ‘rock’ because it allows me to understand who is truly THE ROCK, Jesus Christ.
There are many ‘rock’ statements in the Old Testament, ensuring us that our God is unmovable, immutable and unchangeable as a rock. In fact, the Hebrew word that is used is not about a pebble or even a stone, the word, tsur is related to a cliff or a rock formation. The name Yahweh Tsuri is the assurance to His people that He is their rock, “Trust in the LORD (Yahweh) forever, for in God the Lord, we have and everlasting rock (tsuri).” (Isaiah 26:4)
And prophecy of Jesus gave that same assurance that He would be this rock in the new covenant, “Therefore, thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone. A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed.” (Isaiah 28:18) And in Psalms, “The stone the builder has rejected has become the corner stone. (Psalm 118:22) Jesus, as the Son of God, is that stone which in Greek is ‘petra’ referring once again to a cliff or rock formation. This makes my boasting thoughts as a kid of being a rock seem pretty lame. Can you relate?
My biggest regret is that it took so long for me to see that dependence on myself was a losing cause. But by the grace of God today I not only can say it but a two-hour stint behind the lawnmower proves it to me again. I think that is why I so often find myself in the gospel of Matthew near the end of the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ as Jesus wraps up this amazing sermon he ends like this: “Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rain descended, the flood came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall. But whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand, and the rain descended, the flood came, and the winds blew and beat on that house and it fell. And great was its fall.” (Matthew 7: 24-27)
I guess it comes down to that when we realize who Jesus is and that we can only find solid footing in His words and in His life and death can we find the one thing that does not wear out over time, like my weary old body, Jesus and His eternal love for us.
I am blessed looking out at my yard knowing that I can still push that mower, against its will through the tall grasses of summer. But I am doubly blessed to know that I no longer have to be a ‘rock’ in my imagination or elsewhere. I am standing in that house built on the eternal rock. And if you are young or old reading this, it is available to you also. You don’t need to wait till your lawnmower gets the better of you. Lean on the rock that is Jesus today.
Blessings John,
7/4/18
Happy 4th of July, USA!!
