Eating sand

3/9/10 Tuesday
Yesterday was a tough day, weather wise. I had the guys preparing garden plots for planting and bought some Sudan seed to plant as wind barriers around them. The wind wasn’t too bad at first but steadily picked up as the day went on. When they first put in the trees Alan had only placed the wind barriers on the south side to block the then prevailing winds because we were rushed to get all 60 trees planted. Our plans to complete the barriers later were moved up when the winds started coming out of the west. As I watched it whip the little seedlings around I realized that it had to be done now or I would lose them and thus waste the thousand plus dollar investment we had made so far.


As the wind increased it did what West Texas wind does, pick up sand. Alan and Mike haven’t really experienced this, at least not out here on the farm where there are plowed fields on all sides and nothing to block the wind. I had other things that needed to get done but this had turned into an immediate and urgent need so I grabbed a hammer and joined them building the barriers. They cut wood from the many fence sections we had been given as I hammered them into place around the trees. Seldom will I work in such an environment, with the sand blowing so aggressively, and I certainly don’t expect my employees to do what I won’t do. But they hung in there with me and in doing so increased my respect and appreciation for them. So we breathed and ate sand till the job got done. It always amazes me, after I spend time working in the sandy wind (as I often must do whether I like it or not) how much sand shows up in the bottom of the bathtub after I take a bath. It gets everywhere and this morning my eyes are still a little gritty with sand caking the corners of my eyes where it has been removed through the wonders of how our bodies are able to clean such contaminants.

When we got done I told the guys to call it a day and that I would go ahead and pay them for a full day despite quitting early. By this time I was done for anyway, with my pain level way up there. When I get to this level the paralysis on the right side becomes clearly evident and both Mike and Alan expressed concern. I explained that this was not unusual, just another part of my day. I tell them, and everyone the subject comes up with, that I consider these difficulties to be the price of my being alive, and that the pain and paralysis are a reminder to me of the consequences of decisions I made. The scriptures say that “a man reaps what he sows” and there’s no doubts about the truth of that. It is through the grace and mercy of God that I live. I know I have grated on some due to the loss of social skills caused by the traumatic brain injury, and due to the up front honesty I express, not hiding my true feelings. But I hope and pray that God will use that and me to open others eyes to themselves and that they learn to truly practice the love of Christ. Here’s the key to life, the key to pleasing God, and it’s pretty clearly spelled out. The problems come when people think they are pleasing God but in truth are deceiving themselves, but to God they are “Clanging cymbals” So read this from 1 Corinthians 13.1. If I speak the languages of men and of angels, but do not have love, I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2.If I have [the gift of] prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so that I can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3.And if I donate all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4.Love is patient; love is kind. Love does not envy; is not boastful; is not conceited; 5.does not act improperly; is not selfish; is not provoked; does not keep a record of wrongs; 6.finds no joy in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth; 7.bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8.Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for languages, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9.For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10.But when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end. 11.When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside childish things. 12.For now we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known. 13.Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.
As the guys worked on creating these rows I was having them put compost in the grooves they made on the tops. But the wind was so strong it blew the compost away. Alan had spent a lot of time planting sudan seed and the wind blew the dirt covering the seeds and then the seeds away despite it being watered.

So I work to love my enemies and also those who choose not to practice what they preach, and pray for them all, that they find God if they don't know Him and if they do that they find a deeper walk with Him.

Be good y'all. We're going to Odessa to tear down a barn.