the other day, i was helping rake up the leaves here on base when my teammate abby comes out calling for help; turns out, one of the bathrooms had flooded and there was water in the hang out space and the storage room. eager to do something other than rake (not my favorite job), i go to help. there’s at least 3/4” of water in some places and only two towels available. in the end, the only solution we had was to mop up the water and squeeze it into the mop bucket; cue the two of us swishing water around the floor for the next hour in an attempt to get it into the bucket.
the area i was working on was small but had a lot of water; i was working in the same spot for about 10 minutes before i saw any progress. the only way i could tell that anything was happening was the water i kept squeezing out of my mop into the bucket. eventually we got enough water out that the floor could dry and we could finally shower after a long day of manual labor, but it got me thinking. mopping up all that water made me think of where i’ve been spiritually the last few days.
God hasn’t been teaching me anything new lately as much as He’s been reinforcing and reminding me of things He’s already showed me. growth is hard to gage when you’re going through it; progress is often in such small increments that you can usually only tell how far you’ve come by looking at where you were. while i was mopping, it didn’t look like anything was happening, but i could tell it was working because we were on our third bucket-full of water.
so even though it’s hard to be reminded that i can still grow in this area or that, it’s good because i see each reminder differently than i did before. or maybe the reminder is that i’ve grown here or there.
watching an oak tree grow is pretty boring; it’s slow, kind of uninteresting, and there’s probably a lot of other things you could be doing with your life. but it’s worth it. eventually from a pile of dirt it becomes a sprout, then it grows into a sapling, and after many years it’s a tall, strong oak that nothing short of a huge storm could take down.
so yeah, that’s where i’m at right now. showing up every day even when it feels like nothing is happening. so i encourage you to do the same, keep coming to the table even if you don’t feel like you get something out of it.
love you guys a lot a lot,
claire
Love you a lot back, Clairieberry!
I admire your ability to relate spiritual truths to everyday life.
Somehow this reminds me of the verse, “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” You can’t see the gain in the moment, but it’s happening.
Thank you for sharing. So good!
This is such an encouraging read, Claire!
I loved the story and metaphor