Who's going to trim these hedges?

"WHO'S GOING TO TRIM THESE HEDGES!!"

That's exactly what I said today as I walked past the large hedge that sits just outside the front door of my house.  After my recent ACL Surgery I was required to hire some men to keep up my yard because the doctors said I would not be able to do it myself for a few months. Even though I enjoy doing the yard work myself (I know, I'm strange), I hired a crew of men armed with their tools to weekly cut the grass, clean out the flowerbeds, maintain the trees, and yes - to even trim the hedges!  So, today when I walked by the large hedge in my front yard and noticed that it looked "out of control" for the 3rd or 4th times this week I thought, "why are these men, who I'm paying, not doing something about this!"  I was understandably frustrated.

Then it dawned on me...I have a pair of hedge trimmers in the garage, I can now walk well enough to tackle this job, trimming a bush isn't rocket science, so why complain about what someone else is not doing when I can initiate the change myself??

So what did I do? I grabbed my clippers, trimmed the hedges right then and there, and walked away minutes later pleased that I didn't have to be an eyesore anymore!

As someone who serves in the church I see this same scene played out time and time again.  We see something that bothers us, we notice something that needs attention, we can tell that something needs to change, to be updated, something should be started, cleaned up, or just modified, and what is our knee jerk reaction?? "Let's call on the paid guys to fix this thing!" In the American church we tend to think that it's easier to simply wait for the professionals to come in and initiate the change when we have all the tools ourselves to do what is necessary for God's church and God's Kingdom! Tools given to us by God himself to do the work that needs to be done - His work!

  

AS EACH PART DOES IT'S WORK

Ephesians 4:16 reminds us, "From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work."  We ALL have a part to play, and we ALL who know Christ have the necessary tools (gifts) to play that part perfectly.  Zach Hunter as a teenager challenged others to "be the change you want to see in the world." (http://www.zachhunter.me/#/books/generation-change) -- surely we can be the change we want to see in our churches.

Next time you say, "Who's going to trim these hedges?", consider that God may have placed you there to be the very one to do it!