As I have written many times before, I love to mow. Spending two hours in my yard mowing, trimming, and edging the lawn is a thrill for me. I enjoy it so much that I treat the 20 feet beyond my fence as part of my yard and maintain it for free.
My neighbors are all at risk of me mowing their yards for free. I also have close friends who hire people to mow their lawns. Unfortunately for them, I live too far away. If they lived next door, I would gladly save them the money and mow for them as well.
Many well-regarded time management experts encourage hiring people to do the things you don’t enjoy doing, especially if they can do them for a relatively small amount of money. When I first heard that advice, I was skeptical. Then it was pointed out to me that people already do this all the time. Car washes, oil changes, and going out to eat are common examples, but the list is endless. Most Americans regularly pay others to do things they could do themselves.
But back to my yard.
Earlier this spring, a neighbor asked if I was looking forward to mowing season. I told him, “My plan this year is to make my yard look like Augusta this summer.” (The Masters tournament was taking place at the time.)
My response made me stop and wonder if I had misplaced my priorities. Am I taking things too far?
More importantly, I began to ask myself whether my extra effort in maintaining my yard was vanity or God-honoring.
My Christian faith tells me that my yard, like everything else in my life, has been entrusted to me by God — just like the money in my bank account, my house, my body, and my relationships. Everything.
It is a deep question. I’ve asked for advice from a lot of people, and the responses have been fun. Ultimately, I have settled on the idea that I haven’t taken things too far. Keeping “my” corner of God’s creation clean and beautiful is God-honoring. But I also realize this is a self-serving conclusion.
If you disagree, please forgive me, and know that I am sincerely asking myself this question in every area of my life and hope that, in the end, it helps me make God-honoring decisions.
(One interesting note: I wrote this blog while sitting at a car dealership waiting for them to change the oil in my wife’s car!)
