The view from across the street

I had to chuckle today when I realized that my grass actually looks greener from across the street! That of course got me thinking about life. Here’s the story:

It’s October and that means that it is grass planting season in the northeast. The LeBlanc’s have been in our new home for a few years now and we are finally ready for grass. This may sound funny for most of us in suburbia, but we live in a fairly wooded area and when we moved in the front yard was a massive wooded ivy field. It has been a process to clear enough trees, grind the stumps, kill the ivy and wait for the right season.

If you are across the street at my friend Dan’s house, our lawn looks pretty good. In fact, we have had a few neighbors send us messages about how great it looks. I’m going to let you in on a little secret here. When you walk back over to my house and get up close and personal with my new lawn, the view is a bit different.

There are patches of dirt where the seed is a bit slower to take. I have some fungus because I watered it too much and an ambitious mole has created dozens of raised tunnels making the ground totally uneven and filled with holes. We are still a work in progress. My new lawn does not yet have it’s act together.

My life doesn’t yet have it’s act together either. If I were to guess, you probably know what that’s like. We all have mole hills that at times seem like mountains. We all have dry patches of dirt where we can’t seem to bear any good fruit. We have a choice though; we can keep people at a distance where they think the grass is greener, or we can invite them in and cultivate authentic relationships.

I am trying the latter with a small group of friends as we launch a new church. We are trying to be real with each other, developing friendships that are vulnerable but profoundly real. We talk about successes and joy, but also pain and failure. There is no need to look perfect to each other because we already know we are all imperfect.

Which brings me to the question: do you let people onto your proverbial lawn, or do you keep them across the street?