“The Driveway”

Meditation taken from the devotional writing of Rev. Steve Garnaas Holmes

Crestwood UCC

March 5, 2007

Scripture: Psalm 51: 1-13; John 14: 15-17

Rev. Jean Morrow

Psalm 51: 10-13

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And put a new and right spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from your presence,

And do not take your holy spirit form me.

Restore unto me the joy of your salvation,

And sustain in me a willing spirit.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,

And sinners will return to you.

John 14: 15-17

Hear these words attributed to Jesus:

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will ask God to give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.  This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees nor knows this Spirit.  You know the Spirit of truth because it abides with you and in you.”

DRAFT

I am shoveling eight inches of snow from my driveway.  I started out thinking it was a chore.  But it is beautiful out tonight, and I am getting a great workout. 

As I proceed: behold!  I have a driveway!  For the labor, for the practicality, for the aesthetics, for the hospitality, for a challenge met, for the grace of a problem that covers a blessing, and the blessing uncovered – a shoveled driveway is a thing of beauty.

No life is free of problems and struggles.  But your problems harbor gifts.  Whatever your wounds, whatever your challenges, as you come to see them clearly and deal with them truthfully, you discover the blessings they hide.  In your loneliness is God’s beckoning.  In your anger is honesty about your powerlessness.  IN your selfishness is a hunger for something deeper. 

Under the snow is a driveway.  You wouldn’t shovel it if it didn’t take you somewhere.

This is no escape:  your problems are actually problems, your wounds really hurt, and your sins are real sins.  But even the “back side” of the dark side is light.  As we confront the ways in which we have been hurt, and have hurt others, we are healed and strengthened, changed and transformed.  Sometimes the pain goes away, and sometimes it lingers.  But the blessing always remains, hidden beneath our sins, harbored in our wounds: the hunger for God, the Spirit of truth, the still small voice, the way home.

Do not compare your problems with other people’s problems.  We all have them.  One scrapes barnacles; another scrapes ice; another shovels snow.  Do not judge your wounds.  They lead us to sin, certainly,…but they also harbor blessings.  Look at what is there, and do what you need to do.  Under the snow is a driveway.  The driveway…and shoveling it…will take you somewhere.