Cleaning up...

Does anyone else have a love-hate relationship with power tools??
The thought of blood squirting from a suddenly missing finger terrifies me! And the idea of being fried by electric shock as the tool crosses paths with the electric cord is much too vivid! Or the electric saw accidentally getting tangled up with a limb? These could pass for images from a horror film: Attack of the Power Tools. But after trying to trim hedges and edge lawns by hand, the superior efficiency of these potential little monsters wins out.
Three months ago I had my second experience with a hedge trimmer. Last year, during my first experience, I did the unthinkable, the thing I warned others near and dear to me to be VERY, VERY careful not to do: DO NOT let the cord cross paths with the tools sharp teeth, I warned! Thankfully, the very thing I was told would happen if I did the unthinkable, did: the cord was frayed quickly, which stopped the power completely: no blood, no shock. In fact, no movement. No nothing. Of course, no power...
Saving the cord was pointless; later I found out one would need to cut cord, and rewire the end of the longest portion to the plug. Forget it: I could already see multiple electric shocks and fried bodies from a poorly reconnected electrical cord.
For my second experience with the H.T., I'd like to think I was wiser in using the extension cord with the better plug, AND I was VERY, VERY careful not to let the cord dangle anywhere near the tool's fangs.
Oh the thrill of shedding leaves and branches and watching bushes take neat shapes! It felt like getting a professional haircut and style, and watching it fall into place like hair does in shampoo commercials. It was beautiful, and very fast. So fast, in fact, that I had plenty of time to continue! I felt intoxicated by the speed at which I was getting this job done, and already savoring the enjoyment of looking out the window at neatly trimmed bushes for the next several months!
Multiple trimmed bushes later, and beginning to feel soreness in back and arm muscles, it was time to put my toy away, and rest...But...oh, wait...the leaves, the branches, the mounds of debris I had created!! And no one to blame or to pick up after me....
The relationship between the time it takes to trim hedges and the time it takes to clean up the debris is   directly proportional. Not much comfort, but it is a fact. Yet once again, my gracious God met me at this crossroads of potentially overwhelming discouragement. As I picked up rakeful by rakeful of recently living debris, God began to show me parallels between what I had just done, and the decisions I can make in life:
~ Power (substitute your choice of perceived "freedom")can be great fun.
~ Power can be used quickly and efficiently.
~ Power can get the job done very effectively.
~ Power can create huge messes.
~ If I am to learn how to responsibly use and to respect power, it is necessary that I pick up my own mess.
~ God can teach me even while I am picking up the mess I made.
~ Don't make messes so that God can teach me, but if I made a mess, instead of whining, be attentive while I am cleaning it up.
It was much quieter during the cleaning up than during the mess-making. It was much easier to listen...