Brothers, Mow Your Lawn

By William Marshall

The nature of spiritual training and spiritual growth makes pastoral ministry difficult. The work of crafting a sermon or planning a counseling session is mentally and spiritually taxing. Doing that same work over and over again, week after week, year after year, can be particularly draining. On top of that, the results are not usually obvious. Sanctification is slow. Becoming more and more like Christ is a lifetime work. Calculating that slow growth is challenging (we can barely see it in our own hearts and lives, much less the hearts and lives of others). Yet, this is the work of pastoral ministry. This is what we have committed our lives to do and what the Lord in his mercy has called us to labor in. How can we continue in our slow, unseen work in light of these difficulties?

Mow your lawn. 

Mow your lawn? I know what you’re thinking. But let me give you two reasons that mowing your lawn will help with ongoing spiritual training and slow spiritual growth.

The need for Physical Activity

According to Paul, “bodily training is of some value” (1 Timothy 4:8). Maybe this isn’t the strongest endorsement for joining the YMCA, but the encouragement still stands: physical activity is good for us. I would argue that it is particularly helpful for those who have jobs that are mentally taxing. For those who spend their work day behind a desk (or at least a large portion of it), spending their day off behind a push mower can be good. Working outside, working up a sweat, working with our hands, are all good ways to break up the mental challenges of preparing lessons or attending meetings or offering wise counsel. 

We have all heard the warnings about not caring for ourselves physically. We may be tempted to ignore them or downplay them, but this is the truth: the body keeps the score. You think everything is fine. You tell yourself that you can get back to eating well and working out later. You have it under control. And then you take your blood pressure after a surprisingly hostile business meeting and you come face to face with reality (not that anything like that ever happened to me). Physical activity is worth some value. We should mow our lawns and think about that.

The Need for Visible Results

My dad taught me to mow when I was thirteen years old. He showed me how to start the mower, how to put in more gas, how to follow my lines, and how to not severely injure myself. He got me started and then let me go. It wasn’t fun, but the responsibility felt good. Something about becoming a man and all of that. After I was done, he took me out to the local hamburger place for dinner. When we returned, he put his lights on bright and slowly turned into our driveway. I’ll never forget the lights slowly rotating over our yard. He said something to the effect of: “Look at that nicely mown lawn, not a stray blade of grass anywhere.” Honestly, I was proud. It looked good (even if he did ignore a couple of lines I missed). That moment was extremely rewarding. I could see the fruits of my labor and it made all the effort (and the sweat) worth it.

Pastoral ministry doesn’t really work like that. Occasionally we will see some fruit: a child makes a profession of faith and is baptized, a couple reconciles and decides to give it another chance, a parent stops you and tells you how thankful they are for your faithfulness in the pulpit. Those things happen. It is not a completely thankless job. On top of that, we know the Lord sees and we know that He is moving and working even when we cannot see it.

But sometimes the weeks of not seeing much fruit can turn into months and even years. Sometimes the fruit can be painstakingly sparse. Sometimes we simply cannot see any results. Those are good times to take an afternoon and mow the yard. Walk the lines and make the turns. Spend some time thinking about weeds and leaves and trimmed hedges. Listen to Rich Mullins or Switchfoot or Counting Crows (just not too much). Do the work, eat a hamburger, and enjoy the results when you turn slowly into the drive. Take the world off your shoulders and mow your lawn. 

Obviously there are other ways to achieve the above results. You could take walks, paint walls, or pressure wash sidewalks. Mowing is not the goal.  Rather, the goal is physical activity that yields visible results. Get your heart racing and see the fruit of the work, whatever that may be. Then, refreshed and restored, get back to the privileged labor of pastoral ministry.

William Marshall

William Marshall is a pastor at Grace Bible Fellowship in Sikeston, Missouri. He lives there with his wife Glenna and his two sons Isaiah and Ian, where he has ministered for the past twenty years.