I stood chopping. Anyone who had never lived through a Minnesota winter probably can stop reading now and go to the last paragraph. However, if you have lived through 8 inches of frozen stuff with 15 inches of snow and ice on top you will relate.
I needed to open the gate. Gates are made to open, since our last little affair with winter, we have snow piles, frozen icy walkways and generally a lot of snow. I went to throw hay at noon yesterday and could not get in the gate.
I had two choices. I really only had one but I pretended I had two. Having a choice gives us the allusion that we have some control in life. I kicked at the frozen pile of white stuff mixed with black horse apples. It didn’t do much..ok, it didn’t do anything. I went back into the barn and got the shovel and the ice pick ax wedgie thing and began to attack the issue with a devoted heart.
I have been reading about the beginnings of Lent. The early disciples never forgot Good Friday. We seem to think that was Pope Gregory’s brain child. The council of Nicea observed fasting. I remember anniversaries of deaths. The early Christians would have remembered the next year when Friday came that Christ was crucified. They may not have made a lot of fuss, but they would have remembered. In a couple weeks we will remember. I won’t make a big fuss, it’s been 27 years but I will remember the day our son died. Those things you don’t forget. The Christians had their own way of remembering. Now, leading up to Easter, we have 40 days, not counting Sunday’s, that’s we remember. But if we remember without the sacrifice of the heart being involved, we are just observing casually an occurrence in life. Sacrifices only have merit when they come from a devoted heart.
I have chopped through ice and snow frozen hard before but the other day I had a devoted heart. I had purpose. I needed to get into the gate. My focus was stronger, my energy level was focused on one mission and every time I smashed the ice wedge and felt more frozen crud give away there was almost a bit of excitement. I said almost a bit. My heart was devoted and I was all in.
In 1 Samuel 15 we read about Saul doing something because he was supposed to and not because he had a devoted heart. And, he did it almost right. We don’t do things the right way if our heart isn’t in it. We do it almost right. But when we get focused and energized and our heart gets involved, watch out ice jams; we are breaking things up.
In that same chapter Samuel is telling Saul about God’s reasons for doing what he did; tore the Kingdom away from Saul because he didn’t put his heart into his actions. In the message it says, ” He (meaning God) says what he means and means what he says.”
Our hearts would explode with action, if we really believed that. If we remembered with passion and purpose and our sacrifices were focused on following what God said… with ice jammers and shovels in hand, our sacrifices would be energetically laid at Gods feet rather than flung from afar, not sure we are all in.
I can now swing the gate open; until we get another storm tonight that is. Then I will do it all again. Sacrifices sometimes seem to be one right after the other and we get our hearts tangled up because we just sacrificed: now you want me to do it again? Our life is a sacrifice. Our hours are simply minutes waiting for another way God needs us to sacrifice ourselves and pick up the ice wedges and shovels. 
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