Tuesday, January 05, 2010

snow blower anxiety induced pep talk

i began to feel very anxious just before lunch today. it was almost as though some dark, unseen shadow had crept into my head and sat there... waiting. i couldn't put my finger on the source of this unrest. all i knew was that i didn't feel at peace. so i read philippians 4:6 ("do not be anxious about anything...") and psalm 23. then i prayed. "... and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds..." calmness.
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i have to admit that prayer doesn't always have this effect in my immediate life. but today, it was real.
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after God calmed my spirit, i was better able to focus on the source of my anxiety. while there are many things to be stressed about, the one that came to the forefront was the snow. in the past, our driveway has taken 2.5-3 hours to shovel by hand. a friend came by last year with a snow blower, which took him 20 minutes. a friend of my parents gave me a very old snow blower subsequent to this event, which i never got a chance to use last year. i took it to the driveway last night, and it was slightly less than disappointing. it worked, but it was more of a snow shifter than a blower. this machine moved the row of snow you were "blowing" into the "next-to-be-blown" row, making each row twice as large as the last... until the blower jammed. then it ran out of gas. so i shoveled the rest of the driveway. with the snow we've been getting lately, any means of avoiding a 2.5-3 hour workout in single-digit weather is a top priority of mine. while i am not poor by any means, a new snow blower is beyond me at this point, purchasing something like that on craigslist is out of the question with my lack of expertise, and i got to thinking about buying a slightly cheaper (and probably more fun to use) snow plow for my riding mower. i couldn't justify that either.
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this is where i envy the amish. they've turned much of their lifestyle into a legalistic society, but i think their intentions make sense. wouldn't it make more sense to save the money and do some manual labor? there are so many more worth-while things to spend my money on than something that moves snow, rakes leaves, etc. rather than my own God-given muscles. that, and i get a workout while feeling better about myself at the end. it's harder work, but it's simpler, cheaper, and more rewarding.
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i have a lot of things in this arena that seem to make me into a hypocrite... such as a furnace, a car, a computer, etc. i guess i'm just tyring to pump myself up.

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