Why we love mowing the lawn

Soft rain falls for hours. The gentlest showers touch down so softly now and then. Cool morning temperatures. Clouds and peaks of sun. Midday warmth.

That’s right. It’s the season where lawns grow best.

Hello mid-May in Susquehanna County.

During this season (and beyond), an obvious surge resonates with those whom God calls. The voice is clear and obvious in the following words: Get out there.

In addition to other lawn mowing fans, this is what some men and women of the cloth do. They get out there after they change from what they’ve been wearing at the office, pulpit or pastoral visits to clothes kept in the far corner of the closet or the bottom of dresser drawers. These clothes are not worn often because they’re nearly worn out.

With a sigh of relief or release, we begin.

And there is joy.

The hum of the mower in motion is welcome. Yes, we wear our ear protection. [PSA fellow clergy—you do wear your ear protection, right?]

For the OCD mowers, the patterns the tires make on the soft green growth are a thrill. Those pristine lines. Those straight, beautiful rows!

For advanced mowers, stunning, more complicated angles, cross patterns or stripes are created.

Then, of course, there are the artful types who pattern the wheels in deliberate swirls.

Finally, there are those like me. We make sudden, unbalanced and unplanned turns only the Holy Spirit can guide.

For years, I have said what is true for me, and I imagine I am not alone. I do my best ministry behind a mower.

You may do your best work here, too.

Let me speak for all clergy and non-clergy alike when I say we experience the slight, mesmerizing vibration through our hands when hold the mower’s wheel when we ride or the mower’s bar when we walk. This sensation helps us roam with our whims and our wants. Here we praise. We sing. We celebrate.

We also work out issues or grievances. We vent. We release what needs to go.

Then, with all this out of the way, we get to plan big and then dream even bigger.

The time to go beyond our immediate thoughts begins here. To rest our minds away from phones and agendas is a treasure.

And what is best—the real joy of mowing—is the time we have with God.

This time with God is prayer time. Oh, it may not be formalized. In fact, our thoughts likely rest or roam, but God is in these sacred hours because we speak our thoughts in our minds. We also have the time to listen.

In listening—even if it doesn’t feel intentional—God is there.

God is with Jesus in John 17. Here Jesus speaks to God as we do, can, and should. Connected with God (as we can be connected with God), Jesus shares thoughts of appreciation with His Father. He remembers His past ministry and His goals. He speaks from love of those around Him, specifically His disciples. He values Scripture and the guidance it provides Him.

In all of this, He prays. He prays an intimate, lengthy, thoughtful, intentional, and powerful prayer about who He is and what He’s done by way of His Father. He also prays about who He loves—and who He loves, cares for, plans for and provides for is us.

No, He doesn’t mention us specifically in this passage, but He’s Jesus. We are always on His mind. We are always in His heart.

On or behind your mower, in your kitchen, on the front or back deck, by the water, on the water, or in the water, or wherever you may go with or without pristine lines, we have the gift. The gift is having wonderful time with Jesus.

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The mower in this photo: My DR Super Chomp (not its real name) is a field and brush mower, not a lawn mower. However, Super Chomp, which I use regularly to mow a path through the nearby fields I hike across daily, enabled all the lawn seen here to become just that—lawn.