Take It Back!

In my backyard I have these huge, thick, and unruly hedges that seem to grow a mile a month. It should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway, growing up, I had to cut them down every month or two.

It was a sure way to ruin a weekend.

But like anything, I get used to it, grew up, and soon cutting hedges became business like. I had a system and it worked.

Anyway, about five months ago, it was one of those hedge-cutting days, and I was focused and ready. What’s more, I had a friend who volunteered to help, a friend with a chainsaw.*

Before I go further, let me tell you about this hedge’s trimming history…

Growing up, I always cut them shorter, never thinner. So while we never let them get too tall, we never really kept them at a certain width. At it’s thickest, these hedges went about 8 feet.

So back to the story, we got to the backyard and eyed the monster down. My friend, being the Filipino he is, got the saw roaring, and went right at it. But instead of cutting the hedges shorter, he started going for the width, cutting into it.

I stood there in shock! I didn’t know what to do, except just let him work.

Finally I stopped him and explained to him what we usually do, but he convincingly told me, the hedges were too thick, and pitched his idea:

Let’s take the yard back.

I was convinced and we continued.

The whole time it felt weird, like we were doing something wrong. I felt like I was going to get into trouble. There was too much change, too fast.

By the time we were done, the yard looked so different. All up we probably cut about 5 feet into the hedges, thinned it out, and it looked good. Even more so, the yard was so much bigger.

We took back the yard.

I couple weeks later, after the leaves grew back a bit, I looked back at the yard and couldn’t believe we hadn’t done this years ago.

A few months after the hedge experience, I had a similar experience with my youth room at the church I work for. We have this room that was just filled with clutter. The room itself is decently sized, but over years, it began to be used more and more as a storage area. We just never wanted to throw anything away. We literally lost half of the room to boxes of junk, useless materials, and other things we might maybe (but probably not) use in the future.

Not long after I started working there, the idea was planted in my head.

I want to take back the youth room.

So we did. We threw away truckloads of junk, sold what we could at a garage sale, and donated the rest of it. Then we took everything away from the walls, bought a few gallons of paint, got to work, and after about five days, we had a brand new youth room we could hangout in, feel comfortable, and be proud of.

We took back the youth room.

This past Saturday, we had church workday and a bunch of people came to help out. We had a lot of projects we wanted to get done that day including more hedges and an overly cluttered garage.

We did some major work and got them both done that morning. It was amazing to watch both the garage get cleaned and made useful again and the hedges being cut back down to size.

We took the garage back.

Then, while through away a load of branches and watching the garage get cleaned, these three stories came to mind and an idea came to mind.

I want to take the church back.

It just seems like the way we do church sometimes is so cluttered. It’s not that it’s filled with bad things. In fact, most of the time it’s filled with good things, things we’ve done for years and years, traditions. We do things just because we do them. What if god wants something different?

Would we have room for that?

But just like over grown hedges or an overly cluttered youth room or garage, over time, things just pile up. Cluttered with things we don’t use anymore, things that don’t quite work anymore. Things that hinder us from making use of the space we have.

Here at our church we are going through a similar transition. God is calling us back to his heart and causing us to open our eyes to what is and what could be.

It is hard, it is awkward, and it can be sad.

But it’s going to be worth it.

My hedges are still there, the youth room is still sunshine hall, and the garage is the garage, but they’re better versions of itself. I am convinced that God is doing a similar work at Koloa Missionary Church.

He’s pruning us and cleaning us out. Bringing us closer to His heart, and setting us up for His plans and His purposes.

We are taking back the church.

What God doing in your life? What are the hedges in your life that are overgrown? Where is the youth room of your life that exists but could be so much more? How can the garage of your life be brought back to its purpose?

Is your life too cluttered, too full?

Go do some work.

Take back your life.

Grace and Peace

Ernie

*That friend was Josh Tamaoka. I love and appreciate him. He’s the kind of guy that is there when you need him.