If you are reading this, chances are you have electricity and indoor plumbing. If you live in a detached house, you likely have a lawn as well. Underneath that green turf (or brown turf, if you fail to water in Colorado) run an assortment of pipes and wires supplying water, sewer, natural gas, sprinkler systems, electricity, phone, internet, and TV to your home.
One of my creative sisters recently found a unique way to plant a shrub. She stuck a reciprocating saw in her lawn to cut a neat circle in the turf. Unfortunately, it also cleanly cut through three of her four sprinkler pipes!
Since people with yards occasionally feel compelled to stick shovels (or saws) in them, disrupting services as they cut through supply lines, utility companies came up with a way to help. CallB4UDig sends someone out to mark underground line locations on your grass with spray paint, so your excavations (hopefully) won’t do damage.
Opportunities for digging aren’t limited to yard work. Life circumstances and relational challenges can lead one to engage in deep introspection, not all of it constructive. We can preoccupy ourselves with painful memories involving rash, cutting words, experiencing them anew to our detriment. Whether crumpling under the weight of hurt or regret, or seething with anger and a desire to retaliate, meditations like these do more harm than good.
Sometimes we dig ourselves into an emotional hole so deep, we can’t see a way out.
If we have not received the unconditional forgiveness and love of God, we can easily feel guilty and condemned in the face of our shortcomings and failures. Instead of being refreshed by God’s grace, we fall prey to the enemy’s accusations that pull us down. Listening to such lies can lead to a morbid focus on everything that’s wrong with us, and robs us of faith. We place more confidence in our weakness than in God’s love and strength!
Relational turmoil can likewise take us downward, slicing through our joy and peace lines. Whether nursing past hurts, rehashing offenses, or mounting imaginary arguments, such pointless exercises serve only to exhaust and discourage. The Word tells us, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men“ (Romans 12:18). But we can’t control other people. And there is always the temptation to obsess over unresolved conflict to our harm.
Yet the Bible tells us to examine our ways. So how do we keep it constructive and avoid disruptively cutting important lifelines?
CallB4UDig! Invite God into the situation. He knows you inside and out (Psalm 139). He can help you work through any situation without doing yourself or others harm. This is the guidance of Proverbs 3:5-6, to trust Him, to not lean on your own understanding, to acknowledge Him in all your ways. Bring God into your thoughts; instead of brooding, turn it into a conversation with Him! He is compassionate and understands. And He will give you wisdom, as you cast every care on Him and allow His Spirit to lead you in your thinking.
Very helpful insights, JB!