Pulling back the grass

Processing the turmoils of life can seem almost impossible in our culture of busyness. Yet, if we don’t take time to stop and reflect, allowing room for hope to grow, we can find ourselves feeling more and more fearful, constantly drained and much less passionate about the things that used to get us out of bed in the morning.

A month or two ago there was a bad storm that caused our outdoor glass table to shatter into thousands of tiny cubes of glass, all over our backyard where our children play each day. This event was the beginning of several hours spent picking up glass piece by piece until everything visible was removed. It was tedious. It was exhausting. It was painful at times; but it was the longest I had spent in silence in a long time and in that sense, it was refreshing. An event far from ideal, but one that carved out for me, a (forced) time of solitude and reflection. Who would’ve thought that good could come out of this?

As I sat on the grass that day, I felt as though God himself was speaking to me about a deeper reality we all face when life throws bad things at us. Let’s be honest, we have all experienced a tumultuous time over the past couple of years; learning to live with Covid-19 and now most recently, flooding across Southeast Queensland and New South Wales, not to mention the heartache of the people of Ukraine; and this war, an international crisis.

Life trauma can really weigh us down and not only that, can continue to cause us physical, emotional and mental discomfort and pain. I realised as I removed the pieces of glass from the grass that day it can be painful, tedious, time-consuming and exhausting to pull back the ‘grass’ that covers and hides our traumatic life experiences, too. But when we share our burdens with others, trust another human being, ask for help or a listening ear and take the time to process our internal reality, light can shine in these places the way the sun shone on those pieces of glass that day, and these ‘cutting’ things can be carefully removed.

When good things happen, don’t we boast and want everyone to know? If the ‘glass’ is hidden by the plush green grass we allow to ‘busy’ us, it will only later cause more pain.

There is so much value in taking the journey together. As T.A. Webb said, ‘A burden shared, is a burden halved’.

In my life, ‘pulling back the grass’ at different times has allowed the light and the hope of Christ to bring necessary healing and a new perspective. Whether at home or at work, let us all be on this journey together.