Digging My Ditch

Growing in the knowledge of God is sometimes very labor intensive.  This morning I compared it to my digging a ditch.  It takes work.
 
Sometimes the dirt is easy to remove.  It doesn’t weigh too much and doesn’t fall off the shovel as it’s being transferred.  Sometimes there is sand which slides off the shovel, insisting on returning to whence it came, requiring me to double my efforts.  Sometimes there are rocks which require me to dig around and pry them up with my shovel.  Some are larger than others and some I need help in the lifting and removing.

Some days I look back at the ditch I’ve dug and am proud of all I’ve done.  That pride is short-lived for in the morning, I find dirt and sand have returned to my beautifully dug ditch. The rain so sorely needed had washed the dirt so it sits again at the bottom, needing to be removed....a task much more difficult due to its new wet heaviness.  So I go back and clean out my ditch, fighting the discouragement which makes it even more difficult.

There are brighter times, I remind myself.  I smile when remembering the gopher who did half the digging with putting his tunnel along the direction of my ditch.  There are the times when someone helps me remove the huge rocks I cannot move by myself.  The hole they leave behind requires no digging.  There is the brightness of the day with the sun warm on my shoulders....the coolness of the breeze taking the sweat from my brow and filling my nostrils with the sweet scent of flowers.  There are those times I love digging my ditch!

There are times, too, when I want to throw down my shovel and walk away...telling myself I don’t need this ditch.  But then I realize I do.  I need to continue digging, no matter how labor intensive it might be.  This ditch is needed and I have been given the task of digging it...so I renew my resolve and continue to labor, knowing the reward is great.