I stood at the top of the long, sloping driveway, leaves scattered everywhere, broom in hand. The wind whipped my hair across my face and the two littles behind me ran back and forth. “This is pointless,” I thought. “Why would she ask me to do this, today?” The woman I was babysitting for had asked me to sweep the driveway on the windiest day of the season. I had begun sweeping at the top, thinking I would move top down. However, the harder I worked to get the leaves down the driveway, the more they blew haphazardly across my path. As I chased my carefully cleared sections of leaves, I grumbled inside that this wasn’t part of job description, to sweep the drive when I’m supposed to be watching kids, but I dutifully attempted to follow through with my task (I am a people-pleaser and have a strong work ethic). Finally, I conceded to the wind and my own grumblings about what my job was or wasn’t and played with the kids before going inside without finishing the drive. As it happened, I ended up outside with the kids later that day. Again, I attempted to tackle the driveway. Before I started, I assessed the direction of the wind and then worked with it to sweep the leaves off the drive the way the wind was blowing. Success!
Let me ask you: what are you chasing? Is there an area of your life that feels pointless to keep pursuing, but you keep trying anyway? (I would love to hear what you are dealing with!)
I encourage you to step back and reassess your situation. I think, when we reach these times in our life, we really have two ways to go. We can stop altogether because sometimes we are chasing things that are not really worth our time and effort. Or, we can take a new approach and work with the circumstances provided to reach our desired outcome. I pray that you have peace if you need to walk away from something and clarity if you need to work on it in a different way. I pray most of all, that if you chase anything, that it would be Jesus himself!
Just Beginning 