Your Lawn Must Be Really Important to You

Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished his entire house. 1 Kings 7:1

As I was mowing my lawn yesterday, contemplating today’s passage, I imagined what my neighbors must think of me and my lawn. Last fall, with new construction, we had a giant mud hole, so before the snows arrived, I spent days putting down seed, fertilizer, and landscape fabric. Then, I spent all spring and summer watering, weeding, spraying, and applying more fertilizer and seed. Watering and fertilizing means more frequent mowing and so, I’m outside at least a couple times a week, working on my lawn. If you asked me to rank how important my lawn is to me compared to something like feeding the hungry and the homeless, I’d say my lawn isn’t very important. If you audited my time however, you’d see that my lawn is far more important than feeding the hungry because I spend hours a week on one activity and no time on the other. I can pretend, saying the noble thing, but my behavior reveals the truth – My lawn is far more important to me than I claim.

We can claim something is or isn’t important, but our behavior reveals the truth about what is most important to us. This is the lesson in today’s passage, in which King Solomon’s actions revealed that he put God in his proper place, ahead of his own interests. In the story, Solomon devoted a tremendous amount of labor, time, and money into building God’s temple. Only when that was done did he turn to building his own palace. His palace was grand, to be sure, but the temple came first because Solomon had his priorities straight, seeking God’s interests before his own. Anyone observing his actions would have recognized that which was most important to Solomon.

So, what do my actions say about me? If you audited my week, would you find that lawn maintenance is my top priority? I can claim to follow God above all, but do my actions back that up? For years, I would have said that my relationship with God was the most important thing about me, but my actions would have shown that I spent only one hour a week on that relationship. I don’t do it perfectly, but I do make sure that my first hour everyday now is spent with God – reading, praying, meditating, and writing. I get out of life according to what I put into it. If I desire to experience the new life for which I was created, I must daily make that a priority, putting time and effort into it.