Where Was I Looking?

                 I Was Looking at Too Much

                As winter rapidly approaches, I have been thankful for a good hay season. Yet those summer days of hay moving presented a "standard” crisis for me.

                After a fashion, I taught myself how to stack round bales about two years ago. My brother-in-law did give me a few pointers. My number one guide was the single spike on Dad’s old pickup. When I turned my head around and centered that spike in the center of bale, I was almost guaranteed of stacking each bale with the rest in a pretty organized way.

                This summer as I moved hay out of the field, I used the “grid” of the back window of the pickup so graciously loaned by Vonda and Greg Goad for our use. Who knows why I choose to use the “grid” of the pickup’s back window? To compound my dilemma, I was looking through the truck's headache rack, too. The numerous vertical and horizontal aspects of the window grid and the headache rack were so much more complicated than focusing on the single spike of Dad's old winch. In consternation, I questioned why the rows of bales were not as uniformed as other times.

A glimpse of the back window and the headache
rack as I looked back to spike large bales.

                Suddenly, the realization of looking at the wrong “standard” explained the problem. I began focusing exclusively on the two spikes of the hydraulic hay lift as my sole directives while I backed up to load a bale. Then the bale rows began straightening up almost as if by magic. Not only did the rows of bales improve in appearance but the task became easier.

                As I moved the final bales out of the meadow, I reflected on life. Living life demands standards. Every person has a code that guides decisions, relationships, and worship. Humans worship something or someone. If a person says they worship nothing, usually the person engages in self-worship.

                The code or standards can be set by acquaintances or friends, a religious organization, an organization to whom one pledges loyalty, or an eclectic approach. The eclectic approach has gained popularity since one can pick and choose to accept or reject the tenets to embrace and believe. This eclectic style for selecting a code of life often leans heavily on social media, never questioning the validity of the source of this “truth." This mix-and-match approach readily modifies on a whim - whenever the situation calls for it.

                The eclectic method resembles my use of the back-window grid of the pickup and headache rack as a conglomerate guide for picking up a bale of hay. In frustation, I questioned why this task seemed so difficult? I had tried to center each bale in line with the apparent central section of the window. Yet no attempt resulted in spiking a bale from the meadow in a perfect spot.

               But when I focused entirely on the two spikes as my guide, I found success. I had eliminated from my mental concentration all the other distractions. The headache rack and window grid were still there but I chose to converge my visual acuity on the two spikes alone. The two spikes reminded me of the perfect guide of God’s Word and His Holy Spirit.

The stalwart two spikes at the back of
the bed that proved to be perfect
guides for loading accurately -centered
large bales.

The psalmist, David, wrote in the longest chapter of the Bible, Psalm 119, in verses 5 and 6:

Oh that my ways were directed to keep Your statutes!

Then I would not be ashamed when I learn Your righteous judgments.

God’s Word will guide our actions if we read it regularly and obey unwaveringly what we read.

                After the last supper, Jesus told his disciples the Holy Spirit would come and “He will guide you into all truth.” Later in Jesus’s final prayer recorded, He prayed, “Your Word is truth.” Jesus bound the two necessary guides - the Holy Spirit (His very spirit) and the Word of God - together in His last few exchanges prior to His arrest in the garden.

                Finally, The Apostle Paul wrote to the Roman Christians about following the Holy Spirit and what it reveals. Romans 8:14 states:

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.

Only willing obedience to God’s standards, as revealed in His Word, can result in being led by the Spirit of God. Nothing else can bring peace, order and a comforting sense of His presence like the two guides – His Word and His Spirit.