We must shake off complacency to start anew

Spring is such a hopeful season, full of days of cleaning out what clung onto us all winter long, days of dragging out what was once priceless to the curb only to watch neighbors gasp at the treasure they have just found.

Spring is fresh and new, melting away the dreary days of winter.

Recently I was raking dead grass out of my front yard, getting the remaining decay off of the ground trying to coax the green grass out from its long winter hibernation. In that brief moment I had a rare insight as to how spiritual this practice really was.

There wasn't anything particular about the rake or the dead grass, but it reminded me of how much decay rests on us. Decay that we often cling to because the dead thing we know is better than the unknown, uncertain and unpredictable living thing coming our way.

That's what complacency does. Complacency by definition is a false sense of security. Complacency peacefully accepts what is with little concern for the clear and present danger that is ahead.

Left unchecked and unchallenged, complacency becomes like that grass of last fall, lying dormant and choking out the new growth of spring.

Perhaps the greatest variable that Nehemiah faced was complacency. When he finally returned to the city and completed a full inspection of the wall, he gathered the people together to rally them to the vision that God had planted in his heart of rebuilding the city. The greatest destruction in their lives wasn't the walls or gates that still held their burnt smell. The greatest ruin was their lack of trust in the Lord and their great reliance upon generations of complacency.

Nehemiah's personal story reminds them and us that God can be trusted with your heart. He can be trusted with new vision, new hope and new life. Like the spring garden he can implant within your heart desires for your good, for your future, for your hope.

He can take your heart full of hope and damaged by hurts and remove the decay bringing out new life. The Scriptures remind us that God, who never changes, is new every morning -- meaning that no matter the season he brings new life every day and raises the battle-scarred out of complacency.

With him, your hopeful if battle-scarred heart is in good hands.

Rob Hurtgen is a husband, father, minister and writer. Read more from him at www.robhurtgen.wordpress.com.